The mental and emotional state of children was a novel concept, and the “psychologizing of childrearing” implied that parenting was not instinctual but a skill to be studied and learned. The consequences of improperly parenting a child included grave psychological damage and emotional distress, leading to psychological syndromes such as sibling rivalry, phobias, sleeping disorders, and teenage rebellion. Freud popularized the theory of psychosexual development and warned parents about the dangers of neuroses due to improper toilet training, heaping the burden of adult psychological illness on
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