“It is so simple that only a genius could have figured it
out.” So said Albert Einstein about Jean Piaget’s (1896-1980) theory on cognitive
development. Jean’s world view straddled the period where religious
institutions, particularly Catholic ones, locked up children with impunity with
the assistance of craven governments all over the world in a heady mix of
religious fervour set in a twisted logic wrapped around an immoral view of immorality.
The final irony of their logic was that the child will get
over it or at least should. This latter excuse by the parents of children in an
abused home self served them well too as an excuse as their actions of neglect went
unchecked, for even a remote time of self reflection might have slowed the
slide of permanent damage that they do to their child. What is known today and
more importantly, should be known, is that there is a direct physical and
biological correlation between a child’s development as well as a mental
one with regard to the abused and unloved child.
Choosing death over life is when the child makes it boldest
and strongest statement by refusing food over touch, and is not limited to
humans. It is that instinctive. Love is all encompassing for the development of
the child and the mimicking of love within a foster home setting has it’s own
rewards.
In the absence of this love in the early development of a
child, the brain transmitters are short- circuited and information halted under
the attack of a virus that invades
the healthy neurons that transports vital supplies to the rest of the cognitive
development of the child. In the nature and nurture debate you really cannot
have one without the other by a very great imbalance.
This viral attack comes in all general forms like shouting, absence
of food, left alone, the absence of cuddling or touch, no sense of self, no
sense of belonging, the feeling of unworthiness, fear of being hurt, and the
punishment of physical pain itself or the expectation of it. These factors alone
amount to a very damaged child who is not aware that he or she is so.
Later in life, if that is an option, they will suffer high
rates of ill health and death marked and dogged by depression, and if not
helped with any kind of intervention or awareness, will have gone on to have
children of their own who face the same fate as these parents where only the
address has changed. Many will find peace in the only place they will aspire to
be and not of this world.
I heard a man once say, years after a very traumatic event,
that “he was over that now, past it, gone on with his life.” He then thought
about what he had just said and
cautioned the listener as well as himself, “ but then again I would be the last
one to know.” It is good that things are really what they seem in others or
within ourselves, and needs attending to if they are not and the courage hopefully to at
least start.
Barry Clifford
