The children in these families are subject to maternal
deprivation and severe disruptions in their attachments. They
have difficulties of separation and in overall functioning.
These problems are evident and again play out in a lack of
ability to function in school and a lack of interest in
learning, starting at a young age. These early traumas lead to
despair and rage. Boredom and the inability to connect with any
positive identification lead to risk taking, drug use, alcohol
consumption, and extreme sexual promiscuity. Many of the
characters in Random Family are desperate for a positive
connection with any person, activity, or substance. They are
without internalized skills for self-soothing or self-
reflecting, and they have lost the ability to trust and engage
with the broader culture. Criminal behavior, domestic violence
as culture, prison culture and gang life, and drug and alcohol
abuse all too clearly become substitutes for more stable living.
LeBlanc makes this all come alive—the striving of real peop