Notes on Child Rearing in America

Why have the principles—or rather the catch-words—of psychoanalysis been taken over so eagerly and misused so consistently among certain circles in America? What, of all that psychoanalysis has to offer, has been taken up by some parents and some educators in America?

Chiefly, and in the first place, it has been the idea of infantile sexuality and the implications of this idea for child rearing. It is well known what is meant by this, and the point hardly requires extensive development here. Freud's work has shown us that early sexual prohibitions lead to severe neuroses. For parents and educators the practical implications have been to influence the timing and the mode of toilet training; to allow more dirt and water play in the early years; to teach that the child's early sexual curiosity should be treated naturally, without lies; and that the child's sexual behavior should not be treated in such a way as to overstress shamefulness at the phallic phase. In short, Freud's contribution to our understanding of infantile sexuality has been practically used to avoid inhibiting the child's primitive drives. I oversimplify the terminology here because of the relation of this consequence to what I shall say in general about the popularization of psychoanalytic principles in America.

Another idea of psychoanalysis that has been so readily accepted in America has been the understanding that suppressed aggressiveness may also lead to severe neuroses. Now the essence of this idea was not new in America. Throughout American history, Americans have from time to time recognized the irrepressible quality of aggression in the human personality. But the psychoanalytic influence has surely revived and stimulated the feeling that children's aggressiveness cannot be dealt with merely by suppression. We may say of this that, on the one hand, the tolerance of aggression stems partly from the adult's insecurity in dealing with the child and that, on the other hand, the overdevelo