Wittgenstein imagined that the philosopher was like a therapist whose task was to put problems finally to rest, and to cure us of ...being bewitched by them. So we are told to stop, to shut off lines of inquiry, not to find things puzzling nor to seek explanations. This is intellectual suicide.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Parenting is not logical. If it were, we would never have to read a book, never need a family therapist, and never feel the urge t...o call a close friend late at night for support after a particularly trying bedtime scene. . . . We have moments of logic, but life is run by a much larger force. Life is filled with disagreement, opposition, illusion, irrational thinking, miracle, meaning, surprise, and wonder.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Deep inside us, we know what every family therapist knows: the problems between the parents become the problems within the childre...n.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Good prostitutes are good at simulating the care and concern for their clients as individuals that are a part of noncommercial sex...ual relations, or even of showing genuine concern--that ends when the night is over. In this respect, they are much like psychotherapists. A hundred dollars may buy an hour of sympathy and understanding. But no matter how genuine the concern may be, it is money, not concern, that binds the relation, a fact that is sometimes made painfully plain to people in psychotherapy when they are told by their therapist, while deep in the midst of an especially troubling revelation, that the hour is up. If either the client or the prostitute (or therapist) oversteps the implicit contractual bounds of the relation, there is hell to pay.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Pessimists say that the family is eroding. Optimists say the family is diversifying. Both points of view are right. Families are m...ore diverse and they are more in trouble--but not because of their diversity. The families of today--whatever their size or shape--are in crisis because our economy is failing, our national resources are shrinking, and our governmental policies to support them are inadequate.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I've noticed over the years that kids who are allowed to be emotionally honest develop a genuineness that more repressed kids don'...t ever seem to acquire. Their words match their facial expressions. Their actions match their words, and they relate from a position of strength.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
When children are treated with respect, they conclude that they deserve respect and hence develop self-respect. When children are ...treated with acceptance, they develop self-acceptance; when they are cherished, they conclude that they deserve to be loved, and they develop self-esteem.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Nurturing competence, the food of self-esteem, comes from acknowledging and appreciating the positive contributions your children ...make. By catching our kids doing things right, we bring out the good that is already there.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Unconditional love is loving your kids for who they are, not for what they do.... I don't mean that we like or accept inappropriat...e behavior, but with unconditional love we love the children even at those times when we dislike their behavior. Unconditional love isn't something you will achieve every minute of every day. But it is the thought we must hold in our hearts every day.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »