Dr. Jim Reads Augusten Burrough's A Wolf At The Table: A Memoir of My Father


Chapter 1

"My mother’s voice is my home and when I am surrounded by her sounds, I sleep." 

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5, Part 1, Part 2

"All a rainbow is light that walks behind a raindrop and its colors fall out."

In this chapter Augusten tells a story of when he was 8 or 9 and his desire to have physical proximity and touch by his Father. His father was highly avoidant/dismissive. Augusten at 8 or 9 conducted an experiment to see how often his dad rejected his overtures for physical contact. It was 100%. Augusten then recounts how he gathered a shirt and pants from his dad stuff them with bedsheets towels and pillows and use that to satisfy his need for proximity to his Father. This went on for months until his Mother discovered the artifice and put everything away without discussion.

Chapter 6

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Family Code 6320 and Domestic Violence / Intimate Partner Violence Through Unique Means

  I’ve been participating in the Child Custody Evaluator Annual DV / IPV update with Dr. Love today: Family Code 6320 now has new categories of disturbing the peace / coercive control over various types but also Pet Abuse, Technology Facilitated Abuse and Reproductive Coercion—see the language at Family Code 6320 in the link below: Family Code 6320 Here’s a couple of new terms for you: Stealthing: “wen a partner secretly removes a condom during sex without the other person’s consent”; Fraping: “unauthorized alteration of information on a person's online social media profile by another person.”
Read more

Attachment Trauma in Divorce

Childhood sexual abuse can in some cases particularly disorganize the growing child’s attachment system resulting in among other things for some, an ability to lie about other caregivers. In the link below I explore this observation in my practice as an attorney and now as a psychologist. In saying that, I do not mean to minimize in any way the harm caused to the child or the importance of protecting such children from further harm. The link below will take you to a paper I wrote about 9 years ago but still think it pretty good where I offer some ideas that I explored back in 2013 as an attorney working with families back then. Husen, J. (2013). Attachment trauma in divorce: Recommendations for judges, lawyers, and child custody evaluators. Paper researched and written for Bereavement Counseling with M. Woodruff Johnson, Psy.D.
Read more
Dr. Jim reads Charles Darwin's Origin of Species, Chapter 6  Difficulties of the Theory, Part 4, beginning with p. 119 to the end of the Chapter. Stayed tuned. My next reading will be from Chapter 7 Miscellaneous Objections to Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection.
Read more