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Emiel de Jonge's avatar

Are you taking into account how children develop all over the world? There are children all over the world, all non western, that experience things that few people in the western world do. And I doubt they will all show the same patterns as happens in the west. Ironically, resilience was something Haidt talked about before he jumped on the bandwagon of teen mental health crisis and social media. There is quite a bit of research about resilience among kids and the ability they have to bounce back from horrible experiences. But also what happens when they cannot for whatever reason. Are you familiar with research like this? I think you could find analogous patterns in non-western countries but also phenomena that won't fit into Western theories of child development or how kids should be raised. And what variations there in raising kids that could lead to similar outcomes, and probably as what patterns of adversity that goes beyond their ability of resilience.

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Everything Voluntary Jack's avatar

Well done again, Mike, I support you getting all to consider parental child abuse and neglect are at the core of violence towards others and self.

If you have not read Lloyd deMause, I urge you to do so, and send others likewise.

All of his books can be downloaded no charge at www.psychohistory.com along with many papers from the Psychohistory group.

Once you review the overwhelming evidence you must conclude that the "origin of war (and all human violence) is child abuse" (title of Lloyd's last book).

“The Gods Visit the Sins of the Fathers Upon the Children.” Euripides

“The history of childhood is a nightmare from which we have only recently begun to awaken. The further back in history one goes, the lower the level of child care. The source of most human violence and suffering has been a hidden children's holocaust throughout history, whereby billions of innocent human beings have been routinely murdered, bound, starved, raped, mutilated, battered, and tortured by their parents and other caregivers, so that they grow up as emotionally crippled adults and become vengeful time bombs who periodically restage their early traumas in sacrificial rites called wars. The evolution of the psyche is first of all accomplished by removing terrible abuses of children and their resulting developmental distortions, allowing the psyche to produce historical novelty and achieve its own inherent human growth path. Culture evolves through the increase of love and freedom for children. Self-mastery must replace the mastery of others. Global suicide must not continue to be our goal. History is now a race between too slowly improving childrearing and too fast evolving destructive technology. The crucial task of future generations will be to raise loved children who grow up to be peaceful, rather than walking time bombs. Can we afford not to teach parenting? What more important task can we devote our resources to?” Lloyd deMause

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