The Romance Of Risk: Why Teenagers Do The Things They Do

by Lynn E Ponton

Overview

Dr. Lynn Ponton has devoted her clinical practice to a particular community -- teenagers in trouble. Whether these kids are struggling with peers, experimenting with drugs, stealing cars, or having unprotected sex, they have something in common: they are all involved in unhealthy risk-taking. And their parents are scared. "How did my child get involved in this dangerous situation?" they ask. "And what can I do?"Their fears are justified: today's teens have more opportunities for taking dangerous risks than ever before. But in The Romance of Risk, Dr. Ponton refutes the traditional idea that risk-taking is primarily an angry power struggle with parents -- so-called teenage rebellion -- and re-defines it as a potentially positive testing process whereby challenge and risk are the primary tools adolescents use to find out who they are and determine who they will become. This new perspective is revealed in a series of mesmerizing tales about individual adolescents and their families. Among others, we meet Jill, a 13-year-old thrill-seeking runaway; Hannah, a privileged daughter of suburbia who suffers from anorexia; and Joe, a high school senior with a serious drinking problem. Through these stories, we come to understand Dr. Ponton's startling observation that teenagers must confront and experience challenge and risk along the path to self-discovery. For adolescents, the powerful allure of the adult world is equaled only by the fear of failing to find a place in it. Parents can ease that transition into adulthood, however, by promoting healthy risk-taking so that dangerous options will be avoided. In The Romance of Risk, parents will learn how they can begin to understand rather than fear adolescent risk-taking, and how to communicate with their children about it. After all, teenagers will always romanticize risk. But with the support and guidance of parents and other adults, odds are the risks they take will be the right ones.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786725403
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	08/06/2008
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
Lexile:	1200L (what's this?)
File size:	576 KB

About the Author

Lynn Ponton is a practicing clinical psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, and a professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco. She has written hundreds of articles in publications such as USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the New York Times, Clinical Psychiatry News, Science, and Woman's Day.

What People are Saying About This

Lenore Terr

"A book brimming with humanity... Lynn Ponton paints vivid portraits and then openly and honestly offers refreshingly pragmatic strategies for addressing dangerous behaviors in teens."

(Edward Zigler

"Experimentation is the hallmark of adolescence. ... Lynn Ponton's compelling volume shows how parents can help adolescents manage their risk-taking in ways that enhance, rather than endanger, the healthy growth of identity."

(Peter D. Kramer

"Lynn Ponton has managed to become an expert on adolescence without losing her sympathy for risk and rebellion. She is able to bring out the best in distraught teenagers and their distraught parents. The Romance of Risk is one of those rare books that clarifies the nature of adolescence."

(Judith Wallerstein

"A wise, compassionate portrait of teenagers today by a gifted physician who admires their courage and integrity, understands the terrible messes they get into, and, ultimately, helps them grow up."

John Schowalter

"The Romance of Risk rings with truth. Adolescent risk-taking can make for searing reading, but this book's knowledge empowers the reader as Dr. Ponton empowers her patients."

(Jean Shinoda Bolen

"A valuable contribution to understanding adolescents who take risks. It will encourage rather than dishearten most parents. This is a very fine book by a very fine clinician."

Editorial Reviews

Adolescents, pains though they are, still need someone to stand up for them, and Ponton, a psychiatrist who specializes in treating troubled teens, may be the best news that teenagers have had lately. In her first solo book, she argues that what is commonly accepted as "acting out" should be understood as risk-taking, and that it isn't all bad. Admitting that adolescent risks range from disastrous to functional, she writes "risk-taking is the major tool that adolescents use to shape their identities." The book challenges cultural assumptions about adolescent development dating from early this century. Surprisingly, in tracing growth of the doctrine that adolescence is automatically full of turmoil, she doesn't comment on the fact that before the 20th century this developmental period simply didn't exist, which would have strengthened her point that teen troubles aren't predetermined and unavoidable. The heart of her book is a series of case studies culled from 15 years of work with teens. She has taken on the hard cases: anorexics, alcoholics, "cutters" who practice self-mutilation, and sexual risk-takers among them. The cases, even well disguised for privacy and full of created conversations, show the author's compassion as a therapist and her passion as a writer. In explaining why teens take risks, she manages to shift the approach to adolescent development from destructive to constructive. Teens aren't the only winners in this presentation. Parents who anguish over the plight of present-day adolescents will gain hope that they aren't raising a different species after all. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Ponton, a San Francisco psychiatrist who specializes in treating adolescents, asserts that risk taking is a normal and even essential part of the teenage years. Unfortunately, when positive risks aren't modeled by a teen's family or peer group, negative and dangerous risk taking is often the result. Ponton describes several case studies of adolescents who have opted for dangerous risks such as running away, taking drugs, having unprotected intercourse, getting involved in gang activity, and even raping and terrorizing other teens. All the case studies presented go into detail about the family or social dynamics that have contributed to the teen's negative risk taking. Despite a de facto fictionalizationPonton has changed all identifying characteristics, added made-up dialog, and sometimes morphed two or more people's stories togetherthe author has put together a work that delves deeply into why teens take dangerous risks. Not really a parenting book so much as a work of analysis, this is suitable for medium and larger public libraries.Pamela A. Matthews, Univ. of Maryland Lib., Baltimore

Library Journal

YAAn important book for teens, their parents, educators, and anyone else associated with the sometimes unfathomable adolescent years. Beginning with an explanation of healthy versus destructive behavior, Ponton makes it clear that taking risks is an important part of the developmental process. However, unhealthy or self-destructive risk taking is another matter, and teens must understand the causes of these behaviors in order to change them. In a series of case studies, the author/psychiatrist introduces teens she has counseled who exhibit a variety of dangerous behaviors, including running away, unprotected sex, self-mutilation, eating disorders, pregnancy, and bullying. Issues involved in the mother-son and father-daughter relationships are clearly explored. Divorce war dilemmas and their possible effects on a teen's actions are explained. The importance of familial influence, of the provision of healthy role models and open communication lines is ably demonstrated. Although adults will find this an illuminating book, it will appeal to YAs as well. It is readable, the case studies use teens that come from various backgrounds and have different abilities, and the behaviors are clearly explained. Many adolescents are likely to find a deeper understanding of their own actions or those of their friends. Notes for each chapter provides access to additional reading on the subjects covered and the complete index makes research on a particular issue easy.Carol DeAngelo, formerly at Fairfax County Public Library, VA

School Library Journal

A provocative, well-documented assessment of adolescence as a time of risk-taking.

Ponton (Psychiatry/Univ. of California, San Francisco) challenges the prevailing notion that adolescence is naturally a turbulent time for both teens and their parents. Adolescence, she contends, is a time of risk-taking, most of which is positive and healthy. In fact, 80 percent of young people manage this developmental period without significant difficulties, engaging in the kinds of risks which allow them to develop their potential as they mature. It's the remaining 20 percent that is the focus of Ponton's book. Ponton presents the case histories of 15 troubled adolescents from her clinical practice who were unable to navigate their teen years without taking unhealthy risks. The teens are a diverse group, ranging from an inner-city mother who fears that she will once again become pregnant to the daughter of a surgeon who has begun cutting herself in a desperate attempt to signal that she needs help. Although the factors that trigger unhealthy risk-taking are as varied as the risk-takers, a number of patterns emerge. Parents who are so deeply involved in their own daily struggles that they have neither the time nor energy to communicate with their children often put them at risk, as do those parents who become overly involved with their teens and view them as buddies. With divorce so prevalent, too many parents treat their children as peers rather than as youngsters in need of parental guidance. Teens need, insists Ponton, adults to guide them in making choices and to provide them with constructive opportunities to engage in healthy risk-taking. Adults, too, must be constantly on guard against negative risk behavior.

Worthwhile reading for parents and teachers, and for professionals who come in contact with teens.

Kirkus Reviews