The Forbidden Experiment: The Story of the Wild Boy of Aveyron

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Synopsis
The true story of the nineteenth century&’s so-called &“Wild Boy of Aveyron&”—an abandoned French child who lived for years alone in the wilderness before being brought under the care of an innovative young physician.&“Before dawn on January 9, 1800, a remarkable creature came out of the woods near the village of Saint-Sernin in southern France.&” So begins Roger Shattuck&’s book about the so-called Wild Boy of Aveyron—a child abandoned by his caretakers and captured, years later, while scavenging food from a garden. Unable to speak, he was sent to the National Institute for the Deaf in Paris, declared a hopeless case, and left to languish.One day, however, Jean Itard, a young medical student from the provinces, took notice of the boy. Itard began to spend time with him, and soon the two found ways to interact. With games and toys Itard engaged the boy's senses and imagination, developing methods of education (some of which went on to form a basis for special education and the Montessory method) that brought him out further. For a while Victor—as Itard named him—made progress, but soon it stalled. Isolated behind institutional walls, the boy lived out the rest of his life a stone's throw from the Luxembourg Gardens.The Forbidden Experiment tells the story of a tragic young man and the extraordinary doctor who tried, however imperfectly, to help him. It is a story of compassion, like the case studies of Oliver Sacks—a figure whom Itard foreshadows. It is also a story that leads Shattuck to ask deep questions about the human animal: What is language, how do we acquire it, and what do we become if we are deprived of it?
Copyright:
1980

Book Details

Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
Book Size:
256 Pages
ISBN-13:
9781681379784
Related ISBNs:
9781681379777
Publisher:
New York Review Books
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
Roger Shattuck
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
History, Nonfiction, Biographies and Memoirs, Psychology
Submitted By:
Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.
Introduction by:
Jed Perl

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