Beth, the "Child of Rage"

I came across this documentary while I was searching for interesting videos on contact comfort. The videos below do not describe contact comfort, but something I find much more interesting, if not disturbing. The documentary is about a child named Beth who was abused at the age of one (and most likely deprived and abused before that as well). She was adopted into a family along with her brother and they were both described to the family as "normal and healthy." Unfortunately, the family was in for a nightmare.



This case brings up several different topics we have encountered so far in class, but I want to focus on the developmental myths: infant determinism and childhood fragility. For an average person viewing these videos it's extremely easy to say that very early experiences in a child's life are almost always more influential than later experiences in shaping us as adults and that children are delicate little creatures who are easily damaged. It's cases like this that make people believe these myths. However, if you watch all three videos until the end and look for follow-up information you will see that through intensive therapy, Beth has become a "normal" woman. The little girl who at first showed no remorse in her face or voice in the first couple videos finally learned what was right or wrong and at the very end, she was crying. This is not to say she was undamaged by the abuse; clearly she was, but this gives support that these effects can be lessened by intensive therapy and later experiences.