Review of Rehabilitative Treatments for Reactive Attachment Disorder

An older couple, eager to adopt and love a child in need, had their dreams answered when they adopted four-year old Joshua[1] from a Korean orphanage. However, things quickly became a nightmare when they brought the young, tiny little boy home. Filled with rage and hate, Joshua was extremely self-destructive, manipulative, and hurtful to his new parents and displayed violence and aggression to animals and younger children. To make matters worse, Joshua's parents were not able to find a therapist to help them. Their friends disbelieved the stories and family criticized their parenting techniques.

Finally, the family found out about an organization in another state and immediately flew there with their, then, six year old boy. Upon receiving an official diagnosis of Reactive Attachment Disorder and beginning the necessary treatment, Joshua's family began to understand the magnitude of their son's pain. Joshua, found at two years old wandering the streets of Korea as he dug through garbage cans for food, entered the orphanage where he was "pimped" out by several officials. The degree of damage instilled in the boy affected his social and behavioral processes, triggering a chain of bottled-up feelings, thoughts, and actions that culminated with Joshua's victimization of others. The extent of his delinquency was far-reaching: sexual molestation of neighborhood children, cruelty to animals, threatening violence with a weapon.