Good Enough Parent: A Book on Child-Rearing

by Bruno Bettelheim

Overview

In this book, the preeminent child psychologist of our time gives us the results of his lifelong effort to determine what is most crucial in successful child-rearing. His purpose is not to give parents preset rules for raising their children, but rather to show them how to develop their own insights so that they will understand their own and their children's behavior in different situations and how to cope with it. Above all, he warns, parents must not indulge their impulse to try to create the child they would like to have, but should instead help each child fully develop into the person he or she would like to be.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780394757766
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/12/1988
Edition description:	1st Vintage Books ed
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.85(d)

About the Author

Bruno Bettelheim was born in Vienna in 1903. He received his doctorate at the University of Vienna and came to America in 1939, after a year in the concentration camps of Dachau and Buchenwald. He was a distinguished professor of education and professor of both psychology and psychiatry at the University of Chicago. He died in 1990.

Editorial Reviews

In this sensible, humane, if opinionated tract, Bettelheim offers practical advice that encourages parents to develop their own child-rearing approaches. The eminent child psychologist (The Uses of Enchantment, etc.) strongly believes that severe punishmentphysical or emotionalinstills resentment in the child. Arguing that bottle-feeding, if done lovingly, can be an effective substitute for breastfeeding, he turns to Japanese mothers for examples of technique. Chapters on play describe cops and robbers, chess, dolls, war games and other activities as ways by which children can master reality. Bettelheim urges parents to recognize that children are ultrasensitive to adults' inner feelings. He brings deep insight to such everyday problems as temper tantrums, schoolwork, putting kids to bed and explaining Santa Claus. BOMC alternate. (May 11)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Bettelheim doesn't offer another ``how-to'' book on childrearing but explores the vast complexity and richness of the parent-child relationship. From a psychoanalytic perspective, he discusses such topics as anxiety, school performance, discipline, fantasy, and adolescent rebellion, with an extended section on play and competition. He focuses on the child's struggle toward selfhood, with its conflicting currents of love and anger. The key to being a ``good enough'' parent is to explore relational needs and motivations; it is more valuable to understand emotions than to be ``perfect'' parents of ``perfect'' children. While denser reading than most parenting books, this is worth the effort for parents as well as professionals who work with families.Amy Goffman, Children's Rehabilitation Ctr., Charlottesville, Va.

Library Journal