Childhood and society

Part 1 - Childhood, and the modalities of social life. 1 Relevance and relativity in the case history. 2 The theory of infantile sexuality. Part 2 - Childhood in two American Indian tribes. 3 Hunters across the prairie. 4 Fishermen along a salmon river. Part 3 - The growth of the ego. 5 Early ego failure. 6 Toys and reasons. 7 Eight ages of man. Part 4 - Youth and the evolution of identity. 8 Reflections on the American identity. 9 The legend of Hitler's childhood. 10 The legend of Maxim Gorky's youth. 11 Conclusion: Beyond anxiety

'However much the psychotherapist may wish to seek prestige, solidity, and comfort in biological and physical analogies, he deals, above all, with human anxiety. About this he can say little that will not tell all....This book consequently begins with a specimen of pathology--namely, the sudden onset of a violent somatic disturbance in a child. Our searchlight does not attempt to isolate and hold in focus any one aspect or mechanism of this case; rather it deliberately plays at random around the multiple factors involved, to see whether we can circumscribe the area of disturbance....' --Chapter 1

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