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In his introductory remarks, Dr. Wittenberg gives the reader the essence of the subject matter under study in this simply written, compact book: “The ability to love and truly enjoy life depends in the end on the ways in which one has been enabled to develop self-discipline from within.” He finds that the complex growth period of the adolescent, where discipline problems manifest themselves, is the best laboratory for studying such vexing issues.
He feels that the concept of discipline, through common usage, has come to be associated with force, punishment, and authoritarianism. The term's original root-meaning, derived from disceo (“disciple”) or discere (“to learn”), has been overshadowed by an interpretion suggesting a painful process associated with something hateful or spiteful. Dr. Wittenberg injects the thought that in our search for an inner discipline we are dealing with a continuous process from birth to death. He presents the thesis that there is some inner homeostasis that is achieved in the process of continual changes being made, together with compromises, at various levels of our