Spare the Child: The Religious Roots of Punishment and the Psychological Impact of Physical Abuse

by Philip J. Greven Jr.

Overview

In this rare work of scholarship, "the subject [of physical discipline] enters our minds and hearts in a new way, and we are forced to imagine a world in which the hitting of a child is against the laws of both man and God" (Chicago Tribune).

He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes. These words provided generations of American Christians with the justification for physically disciplining their children, in ways that range from spankings to brutal beatings. This learned and deeply disturbing work of history examines both the religious roots of corporal punishment in America and its consequences — in the minds of children, in adults, and in our national tendencies toward authoritarian and apocalyptic thinking. Drawing on sources as old as Cotton Mather and as current as today's headlines, Spare the Child is one of those rare works of scholarship that have the power to change our lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780679733386
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/03/1992
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	284
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.50(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

PART I. The Problem

PART II. Experiences

Moral Suasion and Nonviolence
Before Conscious Memory Begins
Memories of Pain and Punishments
Disciplined Death

PART III. Rationales

Religious Rationales
Biblical Roots
Eternal Punishment
Breaking Wills
Methodologies of Punishment
The Last Resort

Secular Rationales
Judicial Justifications
Behaviorist Arguments

PART IV. Consequences
Anxiety and Fear
Anger and Hate
Empathy and Apathy
Melancholy and Depression
Obsessiveness and Rigidity
Ambivalence: Protect and Destroy
Dissociation
Paranoia
Sadomasochism
Domestic Violence
Aggression and Delinquency
Authoritarianism
The Apocalyptic Impulse

PART V. Choices

Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

"The great value of Spare the Child lies in its shock of awareness. The subject enters our minds and hearts in a new way, and we are forced to imagine a world in which the hitting of a child is against the laws of both man and God." —Chicago Tribune

"The force of Greven's case serves to drive the reader to the book's conclusion....You cannot read [it] without reviewing your most fundamental attitudes about human behavior." —The New York Times

"An imaginative and impassioned book." —The New York Times Book Review

"A gift from an enlightened historian to every person. It provides us with crucial information ignored or silenced throughout the world. A step toward a more enlightened and peaceful society." —Alice Miller, author of For Your Own Good

From the Publisher