psychology+report

LaSandra Aviles January 22, 2008 Psychology Period 4

PART II:

As the years past, “The Brady Bunch” somehow leisurely began to deteriorate beginning with the core of the household-mother. Slowly but surely Dave’s mother became the depths of all evil which eventually led to the death of their oh so happy family. But where could this have deranged from? Was there tension between mother and father or was the life which this joyous family led together a hoax? Inevitably it was clear something had gone wrong, but what could it have been? Dave had begun to notice changes in his mother, she just wasn’t the same. His once savvy and energetic mother had turned into an alcoholic couch potato who just didn’t give a damn. Watching only her favorite t.v. shows and getting up to pour another glass of liquor, Dave’s mother became absolutely useless. The makeup she applied every morning became a once in a blue moon deal, and her once twinkling eyes began to sink in as dark circles surrounded them. Becoming less mother-like and more of a disciplinary, mother Pelzer demoted Dave in particular from a son to a slave. Depression had set into Dave’s alcoholic mother due to multiple unexplained reasons. Maybe unhappiness or maybe she had become spontaneously mentally disturbed, but there was defiantly something seriously wrong. The smile that once made Dave feel bright and warm inside soon changed to cruel, wicked words that made him cringe, cry, and hurt; and the hugs that once made him experience safety and protection turned into atrociously brutal beatings. Deranged and easily tempered, the mother of the house now had been labeled the bitch from hell conducting nothing but evil behavior towards Dave, and Dave alone. Discipline is much different from abuse, and what Dave’s mother considered to be discipline was nothing of the sort. And yet the question still stands, why? Why Dave of all the boys, why? Could it have been a sense of power and control she felt and was this woman really fit to be a mother? As time progressed, Catherine had really taken a toll on the house “brainwashing” the family which lived inside //her// walls. Dave would have clusters of bruises assorted across his body, his mother had begun to use food as her main source of chastisement by means of weeks, and his bones were so weak that there were days he could barely stand. Treating Dave in such an ill manor, diminished his sense of pride, personality, and eventually his life as a real human being. Hopeful and yet hopeless, Dave created a world of his own in his mind, regardless of the fact he slept on and old army cot in the cold abyss in the basement and no longer was his own person. Despite the vile games his mother played, Dave someway, somehow managed to defeat the mad-lady of the “madhouse” at her own ways merely by surviving life.

LaSandra Aviles January 22, 2008 Psychology Period 4

PART III:

Out of the several abundant, torturous routines mother Pelzer had inflicted on poor adolescent Dave, abuse had become the typical practice of her life. Dave was banished from being apart of the Pelzer family, no longer being acknowledged as one of the family members, Dave was now known as “The Boy” and sooner then later referred to as “It.” Neglect was no longer the term used for her devilish amusement in which she inflicted on young Dave. Out of all the sick, twisted delights Dave’s mother got from watching him suffer horribly, the most disgraceful was the ammonia treatment. Whatever perverse abnormality Catherine enjoyed while feeding and watching her own son burn from the insides night after night as she forced him to swallow gulps of acidic ammonia, was completely callous and malicious. Unconcerned with her sons health and means of life, she watched him gag and gasp for air as his throat closed and smothered the regularity of his breathing patterns, gradually killing him from the inside out. Seeing that ammonia was an ideal and yet appalling idea, Dave caught this routine on a regular basis, sometimes switching chemicals from ammonia to Clorox. Both substances made him cough up blood endlessly and plea for his life while the lining of his throat burned away little by little. As his mother came up with genius idea to mix both Clorox and ammonia in a bucket while Dave lay trapped in the corner of the bathroom, the effects resulted just as worse. Labeled as the “bad boy” of the house, Dave endured the longest period deprived of food. Exiled from eating with the rest of the family, Dave was evicted to stay in the basement until the family was dismissed from dinner which was David time to complete the family’s dishes as well as the rest of his mothers instructed chores. Due to food deprivation, Dave had stolen lunch from other children at school, which he had previously been scolded for. Thin, weak, and fragile, Dave was determined to feed himself. Carefully and silently scrimmaging through the garbage after dinner to retrieve disposed leftovers, he would eat. As his mother soon caught on to the tricks he proposed, she purposely through away spoiled food to turn Dave’s stomach sour, in which she succeeded. Resulting from food deprivation, Dave had forced himself to steal from stores and eventually feed from the dog’s bowl. As the fight for food persisted, Dave did anything he could to get a meal. Stealing frozen food from the school cafeteria Dave seemed to be nearly satisfied. Unaware of his mother’s immorality, as soon as he reached home his mother was waiting to further torture him. Forcing him into the bathroom over the toilet, Catherine stuck her hand so deep down David’s throat his eyes widened and gagged for air. The woman had forced the food which had satisfied Dave’s ongoing hunger pains from the depths of his stomach. As regurgitated chunks of hotdog and bits of potatoes plopped into the toilet bowl, his ill-disturbed mother demanded he retrieve the intestine processed food and set it upon a plate to feast. Humiliated and prideless, Dave was made to eat his seconds in front of his father. Despite the ruthless actions his mother placed upon him, Dave bared ever hit she gave him. Beating Dave on a regular basis, Catherine became bored of the same old schedule; as if starving and trying to burn him wasn’t enough. Slapping Dave from one end of the house to the other was normal, but the broomstick to the back of the knees was the most painful. The hard wooden handle of the end of the broom cutting through the air hitting the back of Dave’s knees left the worst tender spots but not nearly as bad as the dog chains left. The deep black and blue bruises left wrapped around Dave’s body from the metal dog chain were just as relatively bad as the broomstick and the blows to the stomach; they just didn’t hurt as much. Dave found a way to tune out the pain of physical abuse over time. Treated lower then the dogs of the family, Dave was forced to wear the same old tattered clothes year after year, but nothing really set into his brain until his mother began giving him the water treatment which consisted of him lying naked in a bath of ice cold water. Mortified and embarrassed as his brothers friends walked in and out of the bathroom witnessing his naked body, Dave was mandated to keep his head underneath the surface of the water. In a compulsory attempt to drown Dave, Catherine threatened if he disobeyed her demands he would catch another dose of her wrath. When Dave was told to remove himself from the water, he was not permitted the use of a towel, but instead to stand in the shade of the trees as the sun set and the chilly winds blew.

LaSandra Aviles January 22, 2008 Psychology Period 4

PART IV:

Dave and his father initially shared something special. Although Father Pelzer loved all his boys equally and deeply, Dave shared something special with him on a different level. Dave found his dad to be his hero of hope, the hope of the future; that one day him and his father would abandon his mother and live the life they once did, the happy life. Even thought Dave could not understand why his family had become so malfunctioned, he always believed in his father; he was his last chance. Depending on the pledges his father assured him, Dave counted on his father to save him from his desolated, melancholy life. As the life in the “madhouse” worsened, Dave began to see his father less often fore he couldn’t stand it neither. At least when his dad was around his mother didn’t do half the horrible things she normally would if they were alone, but he felt partially safe when his father was beside him. Before the mishaps of his mother, the whole family shared joyous moments, but as his crazed alcoholic mother became more and more deranged, his father withered away along side. Promising Dave he would one day relieve him from his miseries in hell, Stephen gradually lost himself in the midst. What happened to Dave’s hero-his dad? Constantly avoiding home, his father would often pack over night bags no telling where he was. Dave standing dumbstruck every time his father walked out the door always wondered when he would get to see his father again. Longing for his father to fulfill his promises, Dave cried, longed, and yearned for him to come back. As time passed Dave noticed some of his mother’s early qualities in his father. His eyes had sunken cavernously into his skull, and murky circles gathered around his eyes while his deep dark hair faded gray, and alcohol lingered in every word he spoke. David’s once strong masculine father was now withering away with bloodshot eyes and worn down slumped shoulders. Disappointed in the lack of his father’s commitment to his son, Dave for sure became hopeless, with his father seeming like his last resort. If only then he would have known he didn’t need his father’s promises as much as he had thought. Despaired with a future filled with anguish and tribulation, Dave’s anticipation for a life as a real human being minimized as his father abandoned him for life in solitude and misery. LaSandra Aviles January 22, 2008 Psychology Period 4

PART V:

Dave had all the integrity and potential of the world and so concludes once more, why him? Dave was truly a survivor, there is no doubt about that, but how did he survive? All the while enduring the agony and torment of his mother’s unstable psychotic behavior, Dave found a way to beat his creator. Evidentially the torture became a custom and regularity, but how could someone so little last that long under those kinds of conditions. The neglectful environment in which he lived having no one to care for him, love him, nor teach him took a toll on his childhood years which he can never regain. First and foremost Dave Pelzer was a strong boy with a robust heart of vigorous courage. Although his body was worn and beat his mind was a million times stronger then his mother. Not giving his mother the satisfaction of triumph, Dave beat her mentally. Showing her that no matter how much she beat him, starved him, and degraded him, his mind was the route of all survival. Creating a world of his own, Dave thought of the joyous pleasures of being known as someone, not an “It.” Believing in a life better then his own to help him overcome the treacherous, dreadful nightmare he lived, making him psychological powerful in more convenient, less exposed ways; ways that didn’t allow his mother to thrash upon, defeating his mother at any perverted game she decided to play time and time again. The day he decided to make that decision to change his life, is the one day his life changed. On another note, Dave in ways used school as an alternative. School was his real home away from hell. Even though he was known as the problem child, he depended on school to keep him away from the abuse of his mother. Not only did school occupy his time, but it allowed him to concentrate something other then his wretched life. Often times he would steal food and get caught or even get bullied by the school kids who in returned called him names and hit him all the same, of coarse nothing he wasn’t used to. As his mother continuously played games with Dave’s mind, he somehow found ways to conquer her plots. Maybe not realizing it at the time, but Dave succeeded in everything he thought he had failed at. In the end his survival saved him from everything his mother wanted him to

become-worthless. The only way to subsist through his mothers schemes was to play them and find away to beat them by simply making it day by day. Last but not least, the famished period of Dave’s life. The days that left him weak and frail to the point where at times he couldn’t even bear to stand. The discoloration of his pale, transparent skin gave vivid signs of malnourishment and neglect. The struggle for food became an ongoing issue in the everyday life of child Dave. Determined to make him suffer physically, the wicked witch of a mother eliminated food completely from Dave’s diet. With his life’s health at stake, Dave did whatever possible to feed himself, even if it meant having to steal food and eventually having his mother make him regurgitate. Dave made many plans to steal food from other children and stores, out of the garbage and even the dog’s food bowl, being the bottom of the barrel doesn’t have many options, but Dave made it work. After every attempt to supply himself with food to please the growing pains of his stomach, Dave thrived in completion-someway, somehow.

LaSandra Aviles January 22, 2008 Psychology Period 4

PART VI:

This aspiring book certainly took a piece of me on the journey. The bravery of this one young boy who had the audacity to battle for his life in such amazing ways compare to the strongest wills of the world. Abuse is the one thing no one should ever have to tolerate, but sadly enough it happens on a global scale from day to day. The worse kind of abuse has to be what this poor child had to endure for nearly a decade of his life. Reading this book is like reliving the harsh reality of his childhood, and stands for the many other cases of child abuse discovered and uncovered. Speculating the circumstances of Dave Pelzer’s situation, I revealed many emotions in the truth and pain of his words. First and foremost shocked; shocked that a mother with a family, with children, could ever do the cruel things this lady had forced upon her son-the son she once loved like the other. Honestly, I was bewildered by the fact that someone could treat a child as Catherine Pelzer did for as long as she did. Beating an innocent child, feeding them from the ground, forcing them to drink harmful fatal cleaning chemicals; if that isn’t a disturbed mind then what is? Secondly I was left speechless and baffled at the mere thought of the horrid things this woman mandated Dave to do, as if she was superior to all that existed. Again I compared my dazed speechless feeling with distraught, with the fact that the father allowed all of this to happen for so many years, and as a result how did he dismiss the prolonged situation, by leaving. Knowing first hand the torment this poor helpless boy encountered from the beatings to the face and the poison he was given to the stab in the stomach, but instead what did he do? Father Pelzer filled his son’s head with hopes and empty dreams of survival outside the “madhouse.” But who really helped Dave survive- nobody but himself. Parts of the book virtually made my heart drop. Nearly feeling the tribulation and obstacles Dave underwent, I endured his anguish as well as his thriving drive to survive. Although it was made clear before the book ended that he turned out on top, I pleaded in my mind for his mother to take mercy upon his unfortunate little soul. As my jaw dropped several times I stood perplexed and at certain moments in time, I began to cry. Today Dave resides in Mirage, California with his son and wife and is a center of communications for several organizations. Serving in the United States Air Force in the early 90’s, Dave also became involved in juvenile “Youth at Risk” programs etc. Being one of America’s remarkable and well recognized survivors of child abuse in America, Dave Pelzer has dedicated a portion of his life to informing and becoming involved in global child abuse knowledge and other cases.