Freedomain Radio

Very interesting.

Just watched it.  I think I may have seen this before, when I was much younger.

Initially I felt great sadness, as she described how she was touched by her birth father.  Toward the end though, I became angry, thinking of how she probably continued to have some issues, due to the religiosity of her adoptive family.

Of course that's just conjecture on my part.  Religious people for the most part seem more functional than the norm, my own negative experiences with religion notwithstanding.  There are clear disadvantages to having a delusional family, but it's far better than a sexually abusive one.

That is an interesting approach...  Sterness and strict rules, removing the capability of breaching trust in order to garner trust.  I'd love to look into this further to see just why this method is effective and to see if it brings results in the majority of similar cases.

I actually got my 3-year old step-niece to open up to me in that manner.  She was extreeeemely solitary, aggressive and distrusting.  After days of trying, I felt like my kindness and attempts to connect were simply to no avail.  I'm a big proponent of "if you do what you've always done...", so one day when I tried to say hello and she just turned her back on me, I turned my back on her and just pretended to ignore her.  I eventually just walked out on her and closed the door.  After a little while I heard her crying through the door.  I can't tell you how badly that broke my heart, because I thought that she would have just been happy to be left alone or to be done with me.  I ran in and scooped her up, told her I was sorry, and let her cry it out.  That was one of the most transformative experiences that I've ever had because I could literally feeeel the anger melt away from her.  After a while I apologized again for leaving and asked her point blank why she was so mean all the time.  Three years old, mind you, and her answer was, "I don't like people."

I've always been a "mirrorer" with children, but before this experience, I wouldn't have guessed that mirroring even their negative actions (to a degree) would have resonated.  I doubt that this will be my first approach in the future, but I think that when warnth and kindness fail, I can see this method being utilized...

But why does it work?  Again, does it generally work?  Anyone know?

I couldn't sleep after watching this. It was so chilling to see a six-and-a-half year old girl speak so eloquently and matter-of-factly about the things that were done to her, the things she did to others—particularly her little brother—and the things that she wanted to do. The adult look in her eyes, so devoid of feeling and conscience, is haunting. The doctor asked her a lot of questions about details, but only occassionally and briefly about feelings. He certainly didn't encourage her to feel the rage she was experessing through her behavior. The main goal of her treatment was to change her behavior. I suspect that they wanted to her become like a "normal" little school girl, one without expressions of rage, who would no longer frighten them. I think the treatment of religious indoctrination worked more to manage their own feelings than to help her.