Transcriber: Hà Vinh Cao Quang Reviewer: Peter van de Ven
Good afternoon.
I would like to introduce Sofia.
Sofia's mother was a prostitute in Mexico.
Sofia's father was and still is right here in the state of Indiana.
When Sofia was 10 years old,
she was coerced into adoption by her father -
the same father, by the way,
who then proceeded to raise her as a prostitute.
Sofia's father was also the member of a gang
that directly facilitated the trafficking of his own daughter.
In addition to being raised as a prostitute in her own house,
Sofia was also forced to live, for days at a time, in a storage shed,
where adult men had unlimited access to her.
Sometimes Sofia's services were exchanged for motorcycle parts.
After years of daily, chronic, sexual abuse,
Sofia was finally impregnated by her own father
by the age of thirteen.
The same father, by the way,
who then proceeded to violently abort the baby himself.
To this day, Sofia's father is a free man here in the state of Indiana.
He was never charged; he was never prosecuted for his actions.
But my question for us here today is,
Did all of these events which transpired in Sofia's childhood
affect the way in which her brain developed?
The answer is, "Absolutely."
How so?
In this talk,
I would like to briefly introduce five basic themes of brain development.
The first theme
is that the brain develops in a very specific order.
The second theme
is that each stage of brain development affects the next stage.
The third theme
is that the brain also processes all incoming information
in the same exact order as the brain originally developed.
The fourth theme
is that the brain tends to focus more on unfinished business
than finished business.
But the fifth theme, thank God,
is that the brain is not set in stone.
So how does all this apply to Sofia?
We'll start off talking about the order in which the brain develops.
The first part of the brain to develop is the survival brain.
The second part is the emotion brain,
followed by the attachment brain,
and then, finally, the cognition brain.
Let's take a look at each of these four stages of brain development
in a little more detail.
So as I mentioned,
the first part of the brain to develop is the survival brain.
So this is the part of the brain
that drives everything we do automatically,
such as circulation, digestion, respiration -
including our three-pronged response to danger or crisis,
which we all know to be fight, flight and freeze.
Now, in the case of non-traumatized children,
who, by definition, are rarely exposed to danger or crisis,
they have the luxury
of developing relatively stable, or contained, survival brains.
However, even when their survival brains are triggered,
they still have the additional luxury of a nurturing caregiver
that can help them co-regulate that survival brain
until it returns to a more calm and stable baseline.
But that is not how Sofia's brain developed.
Since Sofia was constantly exposed to danger and crisis,
her survival brain never got a break.
Since her survival brain was overworked, it also overdeveloped,
including and especially fight, flight and freeze,
which, as we will see,
will have a ripple effect on the rest of her brain development.
Because the next part of the brain to develop is the emotion brain.
This is the part of the brain
that interprets messages from the survival brain
and then communicates that information to the rest of the brain.
In the case of non-traumatized children,
who, as you recall, have the luxury of a relatively stable survival brain,
it's precisely that stability which then allows them the opportunity
to develop a full spectrum of both positive and negative emotions,
all of which they will need later on in life.
But that is not how Sofia's brain developed.
Since Sofia did not have a stable survival brain,
she actually learned
that she didn't have a huge need for positive emotions.
Why not?
Because you don't need positive emotions to execute fight, flight and freeze.
In fact, if anything, Sofia learned that positive emotions were bad.
For example, if I love daddy
but then daddy treats me in these horrific ways,
then maybe it's not such a good idea to love someone.
However, Sofia did need plenty of negative emotions
in order to survive her childhood.
But especially, two in a particular:
fear and anger.
Why is that?
Because you do need fear and anger
to execute fight, flight and freeze,
which, again, will have a ripple effect on the rest of her brain development,
because the next part to develop is the attachment brain.
This is the part of the brain
that learns to bond, connect and relate to other people.
But how in the world do you bond with a father that rapes you?
Or how do you connect with a father that impregnates you?
Or how do you relate to a father
that then kills the baby that's inside of you?
So not surprisingly,
Sofia's attachment brain underdeveloped.
Now, in the case of non-traumatized children,
who, as you recall,
have the full spectrum of both positive and negative emotions to work with,
they have the emotional tools they need
to learn to bond and connect with other people
and therefore, find security and satisfaction in relationships.
Once again, that is not how Sofia's brain developed.
Since Sofia only had fear and anger to work with as her main emotions,
she simply did not have the emotional tools she needed
to bond and connect with other people.
And therefore, Sofia learned to develop two opposing tendencies.
On one hand,
in order to overcompensate for that underdeveloped attachment brain,
Sofia learned to over-rely on other people,
in other words, become too needy and too clingy and too dependent.
On the other hand,
Sofia also learned to become belligerent and hostile
and sometimes even burn bridges that she could not always afford to burn.
Why is that?
Because fight and flight from the survival brain
was triggering fear and anger in the emotion brain,
all of which is now spilling out onto the attachment brain,
which, once again,
will have a ripple effect on the rest of her brain development.
Because the next and final part of the brain to develop
is the cognition brain.
This is the part of the brain
which based on all previous life experiences
learns to form beliefs about the self and others in the world.
This is also the part of the brain
that learns to make decisions
based on factors such as pros and cons,
cause and effect, short-term vs long-term.
Now, in the case of non-traumatized children,
based on their life experiences,
they learn to develop relatively positive
or, at the very least, balanced views
of themselves and others in the world,
in conjunction with balanced decision-making -
decision-making that factors in both present and future consequences.
That is not how Sofia's brain developed.
Based on her life experiences,
Sofia learned to despise herself.
She learned to distrust others.
She learned to disdain a world
that could have allowed these atrocities to happen in the first place,
not to mention a world that did not and has not held her father accountable.
In addition, Sofia also learned
to develop a really impulsive and reactive decision-making style.
Why is that?
Because that is precisely the sort of decision-making
she needed in order to survive her childhood.
Sofia simply didn't have the luxury
to sit around and ponder a future that might end today.
So not surprisingly, what we see in traumatized children
is that negative beliefs tend to overdevelop
while decision-making underdevelops.
Let's summarize some key points we have made so far today.
So far in this talk, we have seen that in traumatized children,
the survival brain overdevelops -
and especially fight, flight and freeze -
which in turn causes positive emotions to underdevelop
while negative emotions overdevelop -
and especially fear and anger -
which in turn causes the attachment brain to underdevelop,
which in turn causes negative beliefs
about the self, others and the world to overdevelop
while decision-making underdevelops.
In case, you don't believe this brain stuff,
let's take a look at a scan of two different brains.
On the left, you see a healthy brain;
on the right, you see an abused brain.
Red indicates increased neurological activity.
Black indicates almost no activity at all.
What do you see at the back of the abused brain?
Do you see all that red?
That's the part of the brain that drives survival functions
like fight, flight and freeze.
Do you see all the black in the abused brain?
That's the part of the brain that is supposed to regulate emotions.
What about the front of the abused brain compared to the healthy brain?
You see all the red that's missing?
That is the part of the brain that is supposed to make decisions.
Do not tell me that chronic abuse and neglect
does not affect the way in which our brain develops.
But the tragedy of a traumatized brain doesn't even end there.
Because not only does the brain develop in a very specific order,
but the brain also processes all incoming information
in that same exact order.
What does that mean for Sofia?
What does that mean when Sofia's presented
with neutral or even, say, positive information.
What do you think happens to that information
by the time it filters through fight, flight and freeze?
Followed by fear and anger?
Followed by negative beliefs about self, others and the world?
Is that information still so neutral or positive anymore?
No, it is not!
That information is now skewed or distorted.
And that's one of the reasons why Sofia to this day
is so easily triggered by events
which other people would not consider to be triggering.
So what do you think happens
when Sofia's presented with negative information?
To be honest, sometimes negative information
doesn't even make it out of the survival brain.
Why is that?
That's because when Sofia was a child,
she could not fight back,
and she could not escape the torture she was experiencing.
In fact, if she tried to escape or fight back,
it only would have gotten worse.
So that's why Sofia learned to freeze
and then escape in her own mind.
That's the process we refer to as dissociation.
Sometimes, to this day, when Sofia is sufficiently triggered,
she will blackout for hours at a time,
have no recollection what happened,
sometimes even end up in strange places
and have no clue how she got there.
Another theme of brain development that I'd like to introduce here
is what psychologists refer to as the Zeigarnic Effect.
Now in my own paraphrase, the Zeigarnic Effect basically means
that the brain tends to focus more on unfinished business
than finished business.
For those of you that are college students,
think of the last time you took a big exam.
What did you agonize about the most?
The 45 questions you nailed
or the five that you weren't so sure about?
The five you weren't so sure about.
Or think of the last time you fired off five urgent text messages.
What did you obsess about the most?
The four that were answered or the one that was not?
Probably the one that was not.
That's the Zeigarnic Effect.
So how does this apply to Sofia?
Well basically,
sometimes in life, events happen that are so atrocious and so horrific
that the brain simply can not compute what happened.
That means the brain can not process the information,
the brain can not integrate the information:
the brain cannot close the loop.
And when that happens, where does the brain focus more on?
You got it: unfinished business.
And that explains why to this day,
Sofia sometimes has flashbacks and nightmares
of events that happened ten years ago.
Now, if the best of brain science stopped here,
I think I'd be the first to hang up my hat as a psychologist
and turn over my license.
But the good news is the brain is not set in stone.
On the contrary,
the brain has the capacity to learn, grow and heal
throughout the life span.
Not surprisingly, different scientists have different terms for this phenomenon.
Some scientists refer to the plasticity of the brain.
Other scientists use the term malleability.
My own personally favorite term of all is post-traumatic growth.
Now, post-traumatic growth basically means
that not only does the brain have the capacity to heal from trauma
but the brain even has the capacity
to learn new insights as a result of the trauma
that it could not have learned otherwise.
Now, post-traumatic growth is not a guarantee,
but it is possible when provided with the right conditions.
So what does this mean for Sofia?
That means there are treatments available nowadays
that can help Sofia to learn to stabilize that survival brain,
balance the emotion brain,
bolster the attachment brain,
recalibrate the cognition brain,
and even neutralize the Zeigarnic Effect -
in other words, help Sofia learn to close the loop
so that she really can move on with the rest of her life.
Tragically, however, the problem of human trafficking
is not just a problem of neurons;
it's also a problem of morons.
For the sake of this talk,
I would like to define a moron
as anyone who sexually exploits someone else
for either pleasure or profit.
Now so far in this talk,
we have learned that psychologists and others
are working really hard to help people fix their neurons.
What about the morons?
Can they be fixed?
Now, if so far in this talk,
you've been sitting here thinking that Sofia's story
is probably pretty extreme
and maybe doesn't really reflect the rest of society,
then I am tempted to forgive you.
But I'm not.
Instead, I am going to educate you.
Because the reality is Sofia's story is not an isolated case.
According to the University of Texas,
there are 79,000 Sofias
in the state of Texas alone.
That's 79,000 children,
minors,
who currently being trafficked for their bodies, right now as we speak,
in just one out of 50 states.
Let's not kid ourselves.
The problem of human trafficking is epidemic in this country.
So some of you might also be sitting here thinking,
"Well thank God, I'm not one of those morons,
because I would never prostitute out my daughter."
Okay.
But would you ever physically or emotionally,
visually or virtually,
prostitute out someone else's daughter or son?
My friend, it happens millions of times a day in this country
on the internet alone.
Let's not kid ourselves.
Pornography is prostitution.
Prostitution is human trafficking.
So just how bad is this problem of virtual trafficking?
Well, how about [25%] of all internet searches?
How about 35% of all internet downloads?
How about 28,000 users per second?
How about 2.5 billion emails per day?
Still not convinced?
In this country alone,
a new pornographic video is produced every 39 seconds.
Do not tell me that we don't have a problem in this country.
What do we do when there is a problem in our society?
We consult with our leaders, of course, right?
That is precisely my second burden for us here today.
Why is it that you and I both are bombarded
with daily headlines indicating that the leaders of our country,
including leaders of courts, leaders of cinema,
leaders of commerce, leaders of mass communication,
leaders of our churches,
leaders of Capital Hill,
are sometimes our leaders in sexual abuse.
I just don't get it.
Something does not compute.
In fact, I think I am experiencing my own Zeigarnic Effect
right now as we speak.
So in order to make this simple for my own simple brain,
Is it safe to say that we have some morons in leadership?
In fact, I sincerely hope
that every single person in this room
is experiencing the Zeigarnic Effect along with me
because we have some major unfinished business
in this country.
But lest we point too many fingers,
let's not forget
that among the greatest leaders of sexual abuse in this country
are college campuses.
I was a dorm director for three years.
I know that statistic first hand.
So a final question I have for us today is,
Are we really a city on a hill,
or are we are a city on a pill?
The pill of lust and greed
with the lethal, toxic side effect of hypocrisy.
Now, that's a tough pill to swallow.
But do you know what's even worse?
That pill is starting to swallow us.
So, in conclusion,
I don't care if you are a pastor or a priest.
I don't care if you are a captain or a coach.
I don't care if you are democrat or republican.
I don't care if you are a professor and certainly if you are a president.
Unless we are severely dyslexic as a nation,
then "no" does not mean "on"
and "no" certainly does not mean "more-on" -
unless, of course, we have correctly self-diagnosed.
Thank you.
(Applause)