The Truth About Childhood, As Many Of

Child Abuse Is Still Sanctioned — Indeed, Held In High Regard — In Our Society As Long As It Is Defined As Child-rearing. It Is A Tragic Fact That Parents Beat Their Children In Order To Escape The Emotions From How They Were Treated By Their Own Parents.

In The Short Term, Corporal Punishment May Produce Obedience. But It Is A Fact Documented By Research That In The Long Term The Results Are Inability To Learn, Violence And Rage, Bullying, Cruelty, Inability To Feel Another's Pain, Especially That Of One's Own Children, Even Drug Addiction And Suicide, Unless There Are Enlightened Or At Least Helping Witnesses On Hand To Prevent That Development.

Emotional Access To The Truth Is The Indispensable Precondition Of Healing.

The Knowledge That You Were Beaten And That This, As Your Parents Tell You, Was For Your Own Good May Well Be Retained (although Not Always), But The Suffering Caused By The Way You Were Mistreated Will Remain Unconscious And Will Later Prevent You From Empathizing With Others. This Is Why Battered Children Grow Up To Be Mothers And Fathers Who Beat Their Offspring

The Attempt To Be An Ideal Parent, That Is, To Behave Correctly Toward The Child, To Raise Her Correctly, Not To Give To Little Ortoo Much, Is In Essence An Attempt To Be The Ideal Child--well Behaved And Dutiful--of One's Own Parents. But As A Result Of These Efforts The Needs Of The Child Go Unnoticed. I Cannot Listen To My Child With Empathy If I Am Inwardly Preoccupied With Being A Good Mother; I Cannot Be Open To What She Is Telling Me.