Rating: 
Summary: Can't recommend this book enough!
Review: After years of trying to deal with and straighten out my stepdaughter's ADHD, I discovered this book while searching for more written material on discipline techniques, and more books on ADHD. I read a lot of books on ADHD, and tried to work through her problems.When I discovered this book and took it home, I felt my adrenaline begin pumping as I read further. After I was done with this book, I realized that although my stepdaughter did not have fascination with blood and gore, she fitted into all of the other catagories. She didn't physically hurt people, she mentally and emotionally hurt those who she had a beef with. For the first time, I felt like I KNEW what was really happening. Keep in mind that this book is not stating that everyone is going to become a serial killer. Just like with any syndrome, there can be anything from mild to severe symptoms. I feel that anyone who feels "sorry" for children going through holding therapy have no clue as to how serious it is. I have one suggestion: try borrowing an unattached child for a couple of weeks and see what you think then. Actually, try it for a few years. Then you'll REALLY know what it's like. It is pure ignorance to turn these children into "victims". They may be children, but they are the future perpetrators. Wake UP!
Rating:
Summary: positively engaging children
Review: As a personal life coach and elementary school teacher, I found this book extremely helpful for both parents and professionals who want to know more about high risk children and positive parenting. I have heard Dr. Magid speak and his personal approach with children is to positively engage them and to look at their strengths. Although he reported in the book about many different treatment processes, he did not endorse one over another, and I like the fact that he clearly discussed how early consistent love is the best treatment for children. His empathy for children in trouble and their frustrated parents is clearly evident to me.
Rating:
Summary: Attachment disorders in early childhood can create criminals
Review: I am a child therapist with expertise in the area of attachment disorders. This book has been exceptionally useful to many parents of the children who I treat. The implications for a society that does not value high quality parenting on a national basis are shocking. If you ever wondered why so many "gangster types" can terribly harm other people without remorse, wondered how 6 year olds can molest babies, wondered what the implications are when young teens with poor parents become poor parents...then this is your book. Clear and concise. I have met the auther and attended one of his workshops and he is a heck of a nice guy who really cares about kids
Rating:
Summary: enlighting. and yes, a bit scary
Review: I had this book as a college text book. I took lots of sociology, criminal justice and psych classes, and this is a standout. it might seen sensationalistic to laymen and the general public, but it is one of the more memorable textbooks from all the above mentioned subjects I studied... I also reccoment Hunting Humans by Elliot Leyton.
Rating: 
Summary: a future child psychologist from washington state.
Review: i read this book when i was deciding what to major in when i go back to college. i had a foster brother w/ severe attachment disorder and holding therapy helped him. this book just explains the tip of the iceberg of child psychopathy. it is well informed for parents-but experts need more info. my uncle was a neighbor of ted bundy's. he remembers the warning signs being presented even back then.hopefully we can help more of these children before they grow up and ruin other people's lives-and their own.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, frightening stuff
Review: I stumbled across this book when it was first issued in 1987 and have found the information contained in it to be extraordinarily
useful and accurate. It is a book about how sociopaths are made.
When you consider that many of the 20th century's most prominent
personalities have been sociopaths (Mao, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot),
it becomes clear that this is not a trivial subject. That said, it
is amazing how little good information is available on sociopathy
(now called "Antisocial Personality Disorder," once called "Psychopathy").
Dr. Magid really nails it. One of the perverse pleasures of reading
this book is that he describes the typical childhood of the sociopath
so well that every time you read about the life history of a tyrant
or serial killer, you can basically predict what will be said:
Abandonment & rejection by the parents, brutal physical punishment,
and frequently a history of head injury and torturing animals. This
book is essential reading for anyone who must deal with personality
disordered individuals, which is to say, for everyone on the planet (they often rise to positions of considerable
power -- ever wonder about your boss?)
Rating:
Summary: Manditory reading for dealing with adopted kids or divorce
Review: I want to start out by saying that I feel the review from August 1997 did an extreme injustice to this book. They said that it was a partial review. Their statements made 2 things very obvious. The first is that they did not really know or understand or know what they were talking about with regard to the holding therapy. The second is that they have never dealt with a child that has significant attachment problems. This is an excellent book, and should be required reading for all divorce attorneys, all parents going through a divorce, and all judges who deal with divorce cases involving children. The book discusses what attachment is, and what can happen when attachment (bonding) to people does not occur. It helped my wife and I to understand what was happening with a foster daughter we had that we later adopted. We received her at 10 months old, and she had never been with a person long enough to bond. Picking her up was like picking up and cuddling a large board. The little girl did not want to be with anybody that she knew. She would reach out and ask any stranger to take her. This little girl's problems were severe enough that if she had been older, she would have been very likely to kill. It has taken years of work and patience to help her to develop a deep attachment with people. One of the problems that this book addresses and helps people to understand is the typical length of time that a child can be apart from their primary caretaker without significant attachment difficulties being likely to occur. This is very important for parents and judges to understand.
Rating:
Summary: Shame on Pat Schroeder!!!
Review: I was SHOCKED to see Pat Schroeder writing a forward for a book that not only recommends criminal behavior, but provides actual photos of how to do it. Magid, McKelvy and Schroeder should be in prison for inciting people to abuse children by holding them down for hours and intentionally inflicting pain/fear (e.g. knuckle a child's ribs). It goes without saying that these are fringe methods that would appall ethical mental health professionals.
Rating:
Summary: It was as if a weight was lifted off us!
Review: Thank you so much for putting into easy to understand words so that regular people will know what 'unattached' and 'unbonded' mean. We were dealing with many of those issues with a child we became guardians of. We knew something wasn't right but did not know what. We looked on the internet, talked with friends and family, asked at our local library for help. After reading 20 books on the subjects of adoption and foster parenting we finally came up with 'High Risk' and everthing came together. We were in shock at first until we read that not all psychopaths exhibit all the symptoms outlined in the book. Our child had many of them and we felt better because we became empowered by this knowledge and were able to move ahead and try to help him and our situation. I recomend this book to anyone who can read. It should be a must for anyone contemplating becoming a parent. Please help these children by not creating them first. Please help them by reading this book and taking the next steps.
The doctor tells us it will be years of therapy before he may bond again. Until then we will do whatever it takes to help him.
Good luck to those who suffer with this problem.
Rating:
Summary: holding therapy is dangerous
Review: The "holding therapy" recommended in this book can result in the injury or even death of a child. While parents of adopted children with attachment disorder may need to seek the advice of a therapist, this is not the sort of therapy they should subject their child to. It is a shame that people can still purchase this book.
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