Best-selling author, TED-talker, Instagram star, and celebrity pal Brené Brown has a brand new special on Netflix. Titled The Call to Courage, it’s a 75-minute talk at UCLA’s Royce Hall, though the talk seems shorter because Brown is so engaging, a fine storyteller whose self-deprecating … Continue readingBrené Brown’s “The Call to Courage”: Notes for Survivors
What prompts an adult to molest a child? Whether we’re survivors of sexual abuse ourselves, involved with survivors, or simply reeling from ongoing revelations about the Catholic Church, the Southern Baptist Convention, or the Jehovah’s Witnesses, most of us eventually wonder about the perpetrators. Who … Continue readingThe Challenge of Understanding Child Sexual Abuse
Ten days ago, the news broke that fifty people were being indicted in a scam to buy admission to colleges such as Yale, Stanford, and the University of Southern California. As commentators hashed over the scam, which involved bribing coaches, cheating on standardized tests, and … Continue readingBehind the Snowplow
Claudia Black, who literally wrote the book on growing up in an alcoholic family, has read and endorsed Iron Legacy! Long before psychologists understood the impact of childhood trauma, Dr. Black’s groundbreaking It Will Never Happen to Me spoke for the millions of people who … Continue readingClaudia Black reviews Iron Legacy!
Here’s an irony for you: neglect is neglected. In discussions of childhood maltreatment, neglect hovers in the background, included categorically (“abuse and neglect”) but rarely the main focus despite being more prevalent than abuse and just as damaging.[1] The reasons aren’t hard to spot. First, … Continue readingThe Hollower: Childhood Emotional Neglect and Its Effects
Almost twenty years ago, the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study demonstrated conclusively that childhood trauma was widespread and implicated in a broad range of adult problems, from addiction to absenteeism to cancer. Neglected since Freud dismissed memories of childhood sexual abuse as fantasies, research into … Continue readingAnnouncing the publication of Iron Legacy: Childhood Trauma and Adult Transformation!
UPDATE My dear friends, Thank you so much for your thoughtful and encouraging responses! I’m genuinely moved by the insight with which you chose your favorite blurb–and by the generosity of your feedback. I learned much more than I was expecting from your comments, not … Continue readingMy new book needs a blurb!
Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last few years, you know that the United States is a deeply divided country. Our views on guns, immigration, climate, gender, and many other issues have become polarized, our public discourse marked by passionate intensity but … Continue readingSpare the Rod: Still Debating a Settled Question
Though some observers argue that we live in a “secular age,” religion remains central in many Americans’ lives. More than half of us describe ourselves as “religious” and worship regularly in churches, temples, and mosques, mostly churches.[1] The number was even larger in previous generations, … Continue readingReligious Trauma in Childhood
Today’s New York Times features ten personal stories of local Catholics rocked by recent revelations of widespread clerical abuse and systematic concealment of that abuse by their church. Two of the stories deal directly with trauma and raise one of the most difficult issues confronting … Continue readingFaith in the Aftermath of Clerical Abuse