Reclaiming Our Children: A Healing Plan For A Nation In Crisis

by Peter R. Breggin

Children have been sliding down our priority list for too long. Busy parents give children leftover time -- those few remaining minutes after work and recreation. Stressed teachers have put conformity and good grades ahead of stimulating children to love learning. The many adults who are motivated to do their best often find themselves at a loss over what to do. Our children, desperately missing us in their lives, look in the wrong places for solace and support. While only a few become openly violent, many more feel humiliated, frustrated, lonely, and angry.From recasting our attitudes as parents and getting more involved in schools as volunteers, to restructuring class sizes, limiting homework, and fostering honest dialog about the pressures in our society, Reclaiming Our Children shows us the way to lasting peace with and among our children. Beginning with a dramatic shift in adult priorities that places children at the center of our lives, Peter Breggin demonstrates how we can create loving, disciplined, and inspiring relationships with all of our children.

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Peter R. Breggin MD is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist and former Consultant at NIMH who has been called “The Conscience of Psychiatry” for his many decades of successful efforts to reform the mental health field.
His work provides the foundation for modern criticism of psychiatric diagnoses and drugs, and leads the way in promoting more caring and effective therapies.
His research and educational projects have brought about major changes in the FDA-approved Full Prescribing Information or labels for dozens of antipsychotic and antidepressant drugs.
Dr. Breggin has authored dozens of scientific articles and more than twenty books, including medical books and the bestsellers Toxic Psychiatry and Talking Back to Prozac.

Reviews

[Sally · Rating 4 out of 5]

A call to examine and meet the psychological needs of children, especially in their relationships with parents and at school, rather than using drugs as the first-choice answer for difficult or "disruptive" behavior. The author is in the forefront of the fight against routine use of psychological drugs on children (and adults). A good book.

[Jeanine · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most powerful accounts of the crisis of our schools/children/families (and seemingly accurate account of our dangerous and misfocused attention to making suffering or sheer emotions, pathology) in this country...amazing author/psychiatrist.

[Michael Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fantastic book by Breggin. If anyone had concerns in their youth about the education system this is a great book addressing some of the issues.