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Adolescence and Discipline deals with the development of internal discipline in adolescents to enable them more effectively to cope with the variety of conflict situations common to their age group. The book was written for “parents, leaders, teachers, ministers and doctors—all who live and work with young people.”
The style of writing is popular, extremely readable at most times and almost conversational in manner. The author has an engaging ability vividly to portray real life situations typical of adolescence. From a technical point of view it may be construed as an effort to popularize the principles of psychoanalytic ego psychology as they apply to the guidance and education of adolescents. An introductory section presents a theoretical discussion about the ego structure of the adolescent. It is followed by a section which evaluates the most common faulty approaches to discipline on the part of adults. The final section presents desirable techniques for the guidance and education of adolescents.
The two latter sections are excellent reading for laymen and professionals working with youth in non-therapeutic settings and, in fact, for all professionals in the field of mental hygiene.
Wittenberg succinctly proposes that “in our methods to develop discipline we might say that we want to help young people to do what is objectively necessary and subjectively possible. To do this they will have to be helped to distinguish between what is necessary and desirable between needs and wants.” He offers sound suggestions on “how to support the ego,” gives advice as to when a parent should withdraw from direct efforts to help an adolescent, provides information as to how outside help and referral can be used, describes the role of groups in discipline and offers guidance on the setting of limits.
This reviewer experienced a striking contrast between the “practical” and “theoretical” sections of the book. The former are engaging, witty, and clinically perceptive. The latter is ske