Topics in paediatric psychiatry Book

This is a book about damaged children and the psychiatrist who tried to help them. The two saddest stories are the little girl, a toddler really, who at 3 was being prepared to testify against the man (as the only witness) who had murdered her mother in front of her and then cut her throat. She was too young to know about death and had tried to wake her mother and feed her, give her milk and then laid down on her and sung her lullabies.

The other was the 21 Waco children that David Koresh had taught to distrust everyone outside the compound and, if faced with them, to commit suicide. They watched each other which meant that they tried to preserve the evil culture that was the only one they knew. They supported each other to begin with in a very malign way, but later, this mutual support aided them in their journey towards mental health.

The author is an immensely caring man, and one who put aside objectivity for involvement ind these children's lives. How did he ever sleep at night? What did he dream of? He too must have needed therapy. Maybe that's what the book was.