A SANE AND HAPPY LIFE: A Family Guide

Positing the elements of a healthy society, the Franzblaus feel peace begins at home, in healthy individuals. Their book deals with the roots of relatedness; the family as the beginning of community (from why siblings differ so much in personality to a rule of thumb for grandmas); eating, drinking and the emotions (from the role of breast feeding to how to stop smoking permanently); emotional milestones in elimination control (and the conflicting aims and images of training); the role of fear in emotional health and illness; the fear of sex (from castration complex to pre-marital sex); the place of discipline and authority (from the value of a morning routine to the effectiveness, or lack thereof, of corporal punishment); and the development of value systems. This spoon-feeding seems to be dealt out with a practiced hand, but one wonders exactly where in the spectrum of sophistication so random a panacea will find its market.