Bruce D. Perry
American psychiatrist
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ToursExplore Lably’s 3D toursEarly life and education
Perry was born in 1955 in Bismarck, North Dakota, the second of four children. His father, Duncan Richard Perry, was a dentist, and his mother, Donna (née Henry) Perry, a homemaker. Perry attended Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts, but did not graduate. He took classes that interested him but did not fulfill requirements for a bachelor's degree. Even without a bachelor's degree, he earned an M.D. and Ph.D. at Northwestern University. He completed a residency, from 1984 through 1987, in psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine. In 1987, Perry had a fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Chicago.
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Career
Perry has served as a consultant and expert witness on many high-profile incidents involving traumatized children, including the Columbine High School massacre, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Waco siege, and the YFZ Ranch custody cases. He is one of the leads of The Child Trauma Academy (CTA) in Houston. His clinical research and practice focus on examining the long-term effects of trauma in children, adolescents, and adults and have been instrumental in describing how traumatic events in childhood change the biology of the brain. He is the author of more than 200 journal articles, book chapters, and scientific proceedings and is the recipient of a variety of professional awards. Perry's Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics is currently the working model used by Youthville's Trauma Recovery Center in Wichita, Kansas.
Position on ADHD
Perry contends that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is not "a real disease... It is best thought of as a description. If you look at how you end up with that label, it is remarkable because any one of us at any given time would fit at least a couple of those criteria."
Personal life
Perry's newlywed wife, Arlis Perry, was found murdered in Stanford Memorial Church on the grounds of Stanford University in California on October 12, 1974. Dr. Perry was initially considered a suspect but was released as he passed a lie detector test, his fingerprints did not match those on the candle used by the killer, and the blood stains visible on his shirt were said not to match his wife's blood.
In 2018, Stephen Crawford, a former campus security guard, previously described as having passed a lie detector test (while a 2018 article says he did not take one) and having fingerprints not matching those on the candle, was reportedly identified as the perpetrator based on a sample of DNA taken from his clothing. Crawford died of a gunshot wound, reportedly self-inflicted, when the police came to his apartment to serve a search warrant.