that's funny, the thing I've noticed is how people who are majorly fucked up can trace it right back to something that happened to them in childhood.
Not particularly an either/or premise. Hell just about everything can be traced back to childhood, both good, bad, or indifferent.
an interesting tid bit came out earlier this year talking to my dad about school reform and some of the research he evaluated during his EDD....
He was saying that the best predictor of what will happen to a child (will they fundamentally be ok, or fundamentally screwed up) was the opinion of they're 5th grade teacher, with a correlation of 90% or better Kind of a scary when you think about it .....
My 6th grade teacher fucking hated me. Hated me.
I was a late bloomer I guess.