Taming the Troublesome Child: American families, child guidance, and the limits of psychiatric authority

doi:10.1056/NEJM200002033420519

Volume 342:361-362		February 3, 2000		Number 5

Taming the Troublesome Child: American families, child guidance, and the limits of psychiatric authority

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By Kathleen W. Jones. 310 pp. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1999. $47.50. ISBN 0-674-86811-0.

Whom should parents turn to when a son or daughter exhauststheir child-rearing capabilities, leaving them at their wits'end? In Taming the Troublesome Child, Kathleen W. Jones, a historianat Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, providesan eloquent, erudite account of how, during the first half ofthis century, psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workersbanded together as a child-guidance team to claim sole authorityin understanding the causes of and cures for problematic behavior.

Jones's story begins with Progressive Era reformers such asJane Addams, who "believed in the righteousness of middle-classfamily values" and set out to . . . [Full Text of this Article]