Spare the Child

The Religious Roots of Punishment and the Psychological Impact of Physical Abuse

Look inside
Greven’s pioneering work explores the religious and secular rationales for the physical punishment of American children through four centuries, the emotional and psychological consequences, and the resultant misshaping of American character and culture. Greven argues that physical punishment, from the mildest and most infrequent to the most severe and deadly, forms a continuum of violence that needs to be understood and then abandoned as the ordinary way of disciplining children.

“A gift from an enlightened historian to every person. It provides us with crucial information ignored or silenced through the world. A step toward a more enlightened and peaceful society.” —Alice Miller, author of For Your Own Good

“The great value of Spare the Child lies in its shock of awareness. The subject enters our minds and hearts in a new way, and we are forced to imagine a world in which the hitting of a child is against both the laws of both man and God.” —Chicago Tribune

“The force of Greven’s case serves to drive the reader to the book’s conclusion. . . . You cannot read [it] without reviewing your most fundamental attitudes about human behavior.”
—Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times
Philip J. Greven, Jr. View titles by Philip J. Greven, Jr.
Acknowledgments

PART I. The Problem

PART II. Experiences

Moral Suasion and Nonviolence
Before Conscious Memory Begins
Memories of Pain and Punishments
Disciplined Death


PART III. Rationales

Religious Rationales
Biblical Roots
Eternal Punishment
Breaking Wills
Methodologies of Punishment
The Last Resort


Secular Rationales
Judicial Justifications
Behaviorist Arguments


PART IV. Consequences
Anxiety and Fear
Anger and Hate
Empathy and Apathy
Melancholy and Depression
Obsessiveness and Rigidity
Ambivalence: Protect and Destroy
Dissociation
Paranoia
Sadomasochism
Domestic Violence
Aggression and Delinquency
Authoritarianism
The Apocalyptic Impulse


PART V. Choices

Notes
Index
"The great value of Spare the Child lies in its shock of awareness. The subject enters our minds and hearts in a new way, and we are forced to imagine a world in which the hitting of a child is against the laws of both man and God." —Chicago Tribune

"The force of Greven's case serves to drive the reader to the book's conclusion....You cannot read [it] without reviewing your most fundamental attitudes about human behavior." —The New York Times

"An imaginative and impassioned book." —The New York Times Book Review

"A gift from an enlightened historian to every person. It provides us with crucial information ignored or silenced throughout the world. A step toward a more enlightened and peaceful society." —Alice Miller, author of For Your Own Good

About

Greven’s pioneering work explores the religious and secular rationales for the physical punishment of American children through four centuries, the emotional and psychological consequences, and the resultant misshaping of American character and culture. Greven argues that physical punishment, from the mildest and most infrequent to the most severe and deadly, forms a continuum of violence that needs to be understood and then abandoned as the ordinary way of disciplining children.

“A gift from an enlightened historian to every person. It provides us with crucial information ignored or silenced through the world. A step toward a more enlightened and peaceful society.” —Alice Miller, author of For Your Own Good

“The great value of Spare the Child lies in its shock of awareness. The subject enters our minds and hearts in a new way, and we are forced to imagine a world in which the hitting of a child is against both the laws of both man and God.” —Chicago Tribune

“The force of Greven’s case serves to drive the reader to the book’s conclusion. . . . You cannot read [it] without reviewing your most fundamental attitudes about human behavior.”
—Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times

Author

Philip J. Greven, Jr. View titles by Philip J. Greven, Jr.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

PART I. The Problem

PART II. Experiences

Moral Suasion and Nonviolence
Before Conscious Memory Begins
Memories of Pain and Punishments
Disciplined Death


PART III. Rationales

Religious Rationales
Biblical Roots
Eternal Punishment
Breaking Wills
Methodologies of Punishment
The Last Resort


Secular Rationales
Judicial Justifications
Behaviorist Arguments


PART IV. Consequences
Anxiety and Fear
Anger and Hate
Empathy and Apathy
Melancholy and Depression
Obsessiveness and Rigidity
Ambivalence: Protect and Destroy
Dissociation
Paranoia
Sadomasochism
Domestic Violence
Aggression and Delinquency
Authoritarianism
The Apocalyptic Impulse


PART V. Choices

Notes
Index

Praise

"The great value of Spare the Child lies in its shock of awareness. The subject enters our minds and hearts in a new way, and we are forced to imagine a world in which the hitting of a child is against the laws of both man and God." —Chicago Tribune

"The force of Greven's case serves to drive the reader to the book's conclusion....You cannot read [it] without reviewing your most fundamental attitudes about human behavior." —The New York Times

"An imaginative and impassioned book." —The New York Times Book Review

"A gift from an enlightened historian to every person. It provides us with crucial information ignored or silenced throughout the world. A step toward a more enlightened and peaceful society." —Alice Miller, author of For Your Own Good

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