where are they now?

We frequently watch videos on case studies in psychology. Today we viewed a scratchy VHS tape on a family that had four young genius daughters, brought up on ‘deep love, patience’ and hot-housing. During the interviews the girls seemed mature, precocious and happy but everyone watching the video was extremely suspicious of their success. Most people were certain that they would eventually go off-the-rails, indulging in destructive behaviour once adolescence or young adulthood kicked in or harboured emotional trauma. For the most part, I don’t doubt that there are brilliant people out there, not just abnormally intelligent, but good-hearted and well-adjusted as well. It’s maddening for the us average (and below-average) folks but I think it’s a reality.

A very famous case study in developmental psychology is ‘Genie’, the girl found at the age of 13 with no language skills. I found an interesting article on her here and the documentary on her is still in circulation.

With all these case studies, I wonder “Where are they now?”. Did they settle into happy, stable lives thereby overcoming their childhood upbringing (be it the hyper-nurture of hot-housing or the horrific abuse of a psychotic father) or do those experiences that occurred in that critical developmental stage still drive their behaviour to this day?

For the most part, I hope it is the former, not just for a ‘happy ending’ to these stories but hope for the rest of us as well, may we overcome the experience of childhood so that we can stop paying for therapy.