Another Korean Media Review of The Bullied Brain

The article is published in Kyunghyang Shinmun and titled: "The scars left by bullying were in the ‘skull’" by reporter Lee Young-kyung. The reporter signalled the key takeaways from the book where again there's a link to the Korean Netflix series "The Glory" featuring the character "Moon Dong-eun."

• Children who suffered harsh language and violence
• ‘Like Moon Dong-eun’ rather than taking revenge
• Self-destructive behaviors such as suicide
• Bullying and Abuse Healing Expert Author
• Emphasizes the mind-body-brain connection
• “Restore brain health with proper training”

How bullying damages the brain

Written by Jennifer Fraser, translated by Jeong Ji-ho｜Supervised by Choi Yeon-ho｜Bored｜512 pages｜26,000 won

Netflix <The Glory> is a movie about school violence and revenge. The main character, Moon Dong-eun, suffers from terrible bullying and harsh violence. Park Yeon-jin, the perpetrator, is not subject to sanctions thanks to her parents' wealth and power. It's a familiar narrative. Moon Dong-eun chooses private revenge. “Did all the teenagers, 20s, and 30s bet to get an apology?” Moon Dong-eun staked her life on 'revenge'. Revenge succeeds in a meticulous plan "without a single coincidence". Good luck and punishment, more than causality. This is fiction. In reality, children who are bullied and abused suffer not only visible physical scars, but also deep brain scars. Rather than taking revenge on the offender, they suffer from self-loathing and show self-destructive behaviors such as addiction, self-harm, and suicide. The perpetrator Park Yeon-jin is portrayed as a 'pure villain' with no room for sympathy. However, she is rarely born as a 'pure villain'. Perpetrators of abuse or violence are often childhood victims.

<The Glory>'s exhilarating private revenge drama drew enthusiastic popularity.

It sounds like proof that it is rare for perpetrators to be punished and victims to recover. <How Bullying Destroys the Brain> is a book that has come to suit the times when <The Glory> is obsessed with private revenge. Instead of a “private revenge fantasy,” it discusses from a neuroscientific perspective how bullying silently damages the victim’s brain, preventing individual achievement and, at worst, resulting in suicide. It tells how to break down the dam and make a new road so that the suffering children do not slowly suffocate in the dam of suffering.

“This book is desperately needed in Korean society now.” (Jeong Hee-jin, visiting professor at Ewha Womans University)

Author Jennifer Fraser is a Canadian teacher, author, and expert in healing from bullying and abuse. Her first son, Montgomery, was abused for two years by the school's basketball coaches, including verbal abuse and bullying. The author found out about this when Montgomery's mouth was so sore-like that he couldn't eat or drink. The doctor diagnosed it as an inflammatory reaction caused by the stress hormone cortisol. Fraser was devastated to learn that not only her oldest son's mouth, but also his brain had been damaged by festering sores over the past two years. Her second son, Angus, had a rare genetic disease. He had only 1% of his brain's capacity to hold visual information and suffered physically from various genetic disorders. A teacher told Angus that he was "pathetic" and "wasn't trying." Ellen, who was Fraser's pupil, was intelligent and had excellent grades, but committed suicide because she couldn't escape the trauma of being molested by her principal. Fraser herself was sexually assaulted by her teacher during her school days.?

It was inevitable that Fraser would become an expert in bullying and abuse healing. She focused more on the scars left in Montgomery's brain than the inflammation in Montgomery's mouth that the coach's abuse had left. His message is initially pessimistic and later optimistic.

“Bullying quietly causes brain damage. It interferes with the process of neurological development and turns off circuitry in the brain, which adversely affects learning rates and personal achievement. Being bullied puts them at risk of developing anxiety or depressive disorders and even suicide.” It's bleak. But optimism is at the heart of this book. She focuses on brain plasticity. The brain does not stay broken and can be restored through training and practice. Angus entered a neuroscience program, and four years later, tests showed his visual information processing abilities were back to normal. Angus asked. “Why did you send me to a school where I couldn’t learn anything?”

Fraser focuses on the abuse and bullying that adults inflict on children.

Violence or bullying between children is subject to restraint, but bullying or abuse by teachers or adults is often justified in the name of education and discipline. It is not possible to solve the problem of bullying in society by studying only teenagers. She names the abuse and bullying prevalent in society, including schools and workplaces, the “paradigm of bullying.”

World-renowned neuroscientist Dr. Michael Merzenich reached out to help.

Merzenich is the founder of the Brain Plasticity Institute and received the 2016 Kavli Award for the best researcher in the field of neuroscience. Too many children, says Merzenich, “have their brains damaged already at the age of six.” Instead of being immersed in what you love and becoming an expert, you become “an expert in protecting yourself emotionally,” he says, and it interferes with school life and daily life.

Childhood bullying “brain cells fail to grow and die”

Victims of abuse become perpetrators, a ‘vicious circle of violence’

Depression, anxiety, self-harm, externally criminal, aggressive behavior

The movie Whiplash is an autobiographical film directed by Damien Chazelle. The main character, who joined a jazz band at a prestigious music school in New York, practiced until his hands bled while being verbally abused by a teacher. The teacher pushes harshly, saying, “Show your limits.” In other words, abuse. <Whiplash> is not a movie about the joy of doing music, but a movie about fear and pain. Chazelle also dreamed of becoming a jazz drummer, but gave up his dream of music amid teacher abuse and changed his path to film.

Chazelle recalls, “We found out who was playing wrong, pointed him out in front of the band, and made him play for hours.” Neuroscientific studies have shown that during adolescence, being singled out by teachers and humiliated in front of other students puts extreme stress on the brain. Chazelle escaped and recovered to protect himself from being consumed by the bullying paradigm. Following the movie <Whiplash>, he succeeded by winning the Academy Award for Best Director for <La La Land>. However, Chazelle also suffered from anxiety and depression.

Studies have shown that the damage done to brain structures by the chronic stress of abusive behavior is enormous. “When mild stress becomes chronic, cortisol is secreted out of control, synaptic connections are broken, dendrites atrophy, and genetic activity triggers cell death. The hippocampus physically shrinks like a raisin.” To put it more simply, it is this. “The memory center in the brain shrinks and brain cells fail to grow and die.” As a result of the study, it is said that not only hitting with a tool but also hitting the butt with the palm of your hand lowers a child's IQ and interferes with their growth and development.

The problem is that the victim grows up to become the perpetrator, creating a “vicious circle of violence.”

A wounded brain creates an inner perpetrator, through which a vicious cycle begins. The mental assailant torments himself/herself in the form of depression, anxiety, eating disorders, self-harm, drug abuse, suicidal impulses, and, in the worst case, suicide. Externally, they attack others through criminal acts, abuse of others, aggressive behavior, and fights. If a victim who harasses oneself is labeled “weak” or “sensitive,” they criticize the harasser as a “monster.” The author says that 70% of inmates in California's prisons grew up in foster homes and were once victims of abuse, and that "prisons are full of wounded brains.“

Bullying Shortens Lifespan Eating Disorders Drug Addiction

Increased risk of cancer, heart disease and diabetes in middle age

Aerobic exercise and mindfulness help recovery

Bullying also has serious adverse effects on the body. Literally “shortens life”. The results of a study conducted by American internal medicine specialists Felliti and Anda on the link between childhood abuse and chronic diseases in midlife, such as cancer, are shocking. Being bullied and abused as a child increases the risk of developing cancer, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis and autoimmune disorders in middle age. Obese patients, in particular, were often sexually abused. “If they were often ignored, insulted, intimidated, punished or beaten, or sexually assaulted as children, there were no visible injuries or scars when they reached middle age. Because the wound was inside the skull. They developed eating disorders, resorted to self-harm, suffered from depression and anxiety, self-medicated with alcohol and drugs, pursued unhealthy relationships, entered a world of violence, and committed suicide.” Horrible.

But if you turn it around, you can see hope. Eradicating abuse can reduce a number of mental and physical ailments. Anda estimates that ending child abuse in the United States would cut depression rates by less than half, alcohol dependence by two-thirds, and suicide, drugs and domestic violence by three-quarters.

The human brain is constantly changing. Angus recovered his damaged visual information processing ability through training. “A broken brain can be restored.” As a result of studying various traumas in the brain, Merzenich found that the damaged brain can be restored to a healthy state through proper training.

“Merzenich won the Kavli Prize not for his research on the failing brain, but for figuring out how to restore brain health.”

The author emphasizes that the mind-body-brain are connected. The brain plays a key role in the autonomic nervous system and hormone regulation and influences the strength and regulation of the immune response. “The brain governs the health of the body.” Merzenich has set up a training program for children called “Stronger Brains” to support the recovery of children with traumatic scars.

Suggests a way to restore damaged brain function. Mindfulness training and aerobic exercise. Mindfulness training awakens the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the opposite of the stress response, to secrete dopamine and serotonin. It is said to restore composure, help develop resilience, improve creativity and concentration. When the heart rate is elevated by physical activity, special stimulation is applied to the brain to actively engage in learning, thinking, memory, and problem solving.

Moon Dong-eun in <The Glory> sacrifices her entire life for revenge. Personal happiness or achievement does not constitute plural content. Perhaps <The Glory> is the result of the trauma left by bullying and abuse.