THE EMOTIONAL CARE OF YOUR CHILD

In an age when you no longer beat him when he sneezes but yourself, a few venerable simplicities (know thyself; love your child) along with some more extended generalities: there is no one way to bring up a child--find a middle way between what you and he want. Most of this book, however, by a Freudian psychiatrist goes through the major moments (your marriage; the planned conception; pregnancy; birth; etc.) and the oral-anal continuum to stress, at some length, the Oedipal situation as the primary factor in all relationships. You must also be able to recognize its vestigial traces in your own psyche (according to a quiz--""if you are unmarried at 30 and 32"" which must make 31 leap year). Sometimes Dr. Abrahamsen goes too far: if you can't breastfeed, simulate the ambience with the skin the infant will love to touch instead of a dress or apron. For the most part he relies on the standard craft durch Freud along with frequent referrals to his 1958 The Road to Emotional Maturity still in print. A market indication the above seems to have overlooked.