A friend in Arkansas arranged to have sent to me a copy of the February 1999
(Volume 7, Number 1) issue of "Pediatric Commentary: a Journal for
Physicians from Arkansas Children's Hospital." This issue contains the
transcript of a lecture given by Dr. Bruce Perry (MD and PhD) on November
10, 1998.  Dr. Perry is the senior fellow of the CIVITAS Initiative, a
national organization devoted to discovering, translating and communicating
information and innovations that promote optimal child development.  He is
the Thomas S. Trammell Research Professor of Child Psychiatry and the
Vice-Chairman for Research in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral
Sciences at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and chief of
psychiatry at Texas Children's Hospital.

Anyway, the speech is very interesting.  It doesn't specifically mention
breastfeeding, but it does talk about the importance of mother-baby
interactions in the first years of life for the development of a normal,
affiliative (social) personality.  Some of his words are positively chilling
in light of recent events.  Such as:

"The problem with the brain is that it is unbelievably malleable and
unbelievably capable of shaping itself in a variety of different ways.  You
can take the exact same genome [genetic information] from two children that
have had the exact same intrauterine experience, and you can provide
experiences for one so that the child will be cold, unattached, impulsive,
aggressive, cognitively concrete, superstitious, and hateful.  We know that
you can create all those experiences.  Or the very same genome, you can
produce kids who are very good at self-soothing, social affiliation and
attachment; who have a sense of responsibility, who are capable of abstract
and creative cognition."

Anyway, he makes many excellent points, and the speech was given to a
general audience, so it is not too highly technical.  I have made copies and
added it to my packet of information that I give out to counter the
teachings of the Ezzos.
If anyone wants to request a copy of the issue, the person to contact is
Laurie Rodwell, publications specialist and public relations at Arkansas
Children's Hospital.  Her email is mailto:[log in to unmask] and her
phone number is 501-320-6445.  Tell her I sent you.

Kathy Dettwyler

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