Books Offer Theories For Child Rearing
Parents frequently ask me for my recommendations concerning books on child rearing and related matters, so here they are. Warning: Several of these works are so controversial as to be considered “incorrect” by many other mental health professionals.
“Endangered Minds” (Simon and Schuster, $12) by educational psychologist Dr. Jane Healy. Healy argues that television-watching - especially during the preschool years - is compromising the neurological integrity of American children in epidemic proportion. She uses lots of hard data to bolster her argument that television-watching adversely affects problem-solving ability, attention-span, abstract-thinking skills and communication skills, thus predisposing children to various learning and behavioral difficulties, including attention deficit disorder and learning disabilities. Don’t say I didn’t tell you so.
“The New Dare to Discipline” (Tyndale, $14.95) by Dr. James Dobson, an updated revision of “Dare to Discipline” (1970), the book that caused so much consternation among mental health professionals for its open advocacy of spanking, and so much positive buzz in the Christian community for its scriptural foundations. This edition is broader in scope, and the 20-plus years in between editions find Dobson slightly mellower when it comes to spanking, but by no means contrite concerning his previous stands. I greatly admire Dobson’s courage in denouncing the nouveau child-rearing ideas that have been “correct” in the psychological community for the past 40 years. He tells it “like it is.”
“The Disappearance of Childhood” (Delacorte Press, $13.95) by Neil Postman, professor of media ecology at New York University. In this thought-provoking work, Postman reveals that as electronic media have become predominant over print media, the innocence of childhood is being insidiously destroyed. Television (and now the Internet) gives children instant access to images and ideas from which adults of previous generations strenuously sought to shield them. A fascinating book by one of America’s most distinguished contemporary philosophers.
“The Myth of Repressed Memory” (St. Martin’s Press, $22.95) by Dr. Elizabeth Loftus and Katherine Ketcham. Loftus, professor of psychology at the University of Washington, was one of the first nationally known psychologists to speak out against the “repressed memory movement,” proponents of which claimed that as many as 80 percent of all women who were in psychotherapy had repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse, in most cases supposedly perpetrated by their fathers.
Meticulously and objectively, Loftus discredits the popular notion that traumatic memories are routinely stored in the unconscious mind and can be reliably recovered years later. She accepts that some children have been and are being sexually abused, but maintains that many such “memories” are artificially created - no doubt unwittingly - by certain therapeutic processes. Loftus gives the reader an in-depth look at an issue that continues to divide mental health professionals. Not surprisingly, her stand has made her extremely unpopular in some circles.
“The First Three Years of Life” ($12) by Dr. Burton White, unquestionably America’s foremost expert on infant and toddler development. Most “parenting” books aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on, but this book focuses more on understanding infants and toddlers than rearing them. White believes, as I do, that if you understand children, you will be able to rear them properly, and he has written a comprehensive work that still stands as the best in its field nearly 20 years after the first edition was published.
Next week, I’ll review some of my favorite “parenting” newsletters, so stay tuned.