“Wild Child”: How Three Principles of Healing Organized 12 Years of Psychotherapy

Methods of conducting psychotherapy in the most severe forms of childhood posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), especially in those traumas discovered very early in life, are rarely reported. This paper presents such a report and in the process emphasizes three elements of treatment: abreaction (full emotional expression of the traumatic experience), context (understanding and gaining perspective on the experience), and correction (finding ways personally or through society to prevent or repair such experiences). With traumatized children, all three elements may be inserted into their therapeutic play, art, and/or talk. An overarching mood of light humor helps the transference stay positive and the child interested. The case of “Cammie,” an infant who was bitten, shaken, and sexually abused, and whose 25-day-old sister was discovered at home, murdered, is the subject of this report. This little girl, upon removal at 13 months of age from her home of origin, growled, bit, sniffed sexual organs, rarely spoke, and behaved like the “feral children” described in the classic psychiatric literature. Two respected professionals diagnosed her as mentally retarded. A year in an outstanding foster home did little to improve her. At 29 months of age she was brought to the author, who saw enough imagination and pithy language to believe the child to be intelligent but severely traumatized. The author had begun to conceptualize three principles of PTSD treatment after a study of normal schoolchildren’s reactions to the 1986 Challenger disaster. These three principles were used with varying emphases at different phases throughout the “wild child’s” 12-year course of once-monthly therapy. Improvement beyond anyone’s expectations ensued.