Description:
Parents and other adults are the source of the problem with troubled children--not the "child monsters" whose mug shots we see on the evening news for school shootings, murders, and other tales of modern-day juvenile delinquency. That's the case made by Peter R. Breggin, a Maryland-based psychiatrist who has written widely on the overuse of psychoactive drug; in Reclaiming Our Children he takes aim at what he considers the root of all the trouble: today's families. Overly permissive parents, absentee fathers, working mothers, disconnected families--they all take the blame in Breggin's well-reasoned argument for renewing the importance of children in our lives. The 1999 Columbine High School shootings figure prominently in Breggin's dissection of how society has abandoned its kids. He calls a White House conference held after the massacre a "missed opportunity" because politicians and health advisers were quick to blame the student shooters' actions on genetic and biochemical conditions beyond our control. As Breggin has written in many of his other books, he believes parents are too eager to turn to Prozac, Ritalin, and other chemical solutions for problems that should be sorted out with old-fashioned therapy. His accounts of treating young patients and their parents are delightful passages, though his diagnoses at times seem a bit simplistic. He offers self-help solutions near the end of the book, with suggestions on how parents can avoid serious conflicts with their kids. His views on child-rearing tactics sometimes go against the grain: he's not an advocate of time-outs as a means of discipline, for example. And his child-centered ideas may frustrate some parents in the throes of dealing with a 2-year-old's tantrums or a disrespectful teen's defiance. But his plea for making children a priority is a much-needed, logical voice that should cause some parents to pause and rethink their hectic lives. --Jodi Mailander Farrell
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