YOU CAN RAISE DECENT CHILDREN.

By Berthold Eric Schwarz '46, M.D., andBartholomew A. Ruggieri, M.D. NewRochelle, N. Y.: Arlington House, 1971.345 pp. $9.95.

These physicians make clear that they are against permissiveness in raising children and in favor of more freedom to policemen "who are hobbled by orders restricting them from carrying out their duty." They lament the new freedoms: "The clothing young people wear reveals their confusion in sexual identity—or they wear no clothing at all." Such pejorative phrases abound as: "All-too-suggestible youth" or "The so-called havenots in our society," and "Manipulated into a frenzy without any immediate outlet."

Case histories often seem oversimplified. A 19-year-old son and his mother who sleep together are abnormal. "If the baby is crying because the diapers are wet, change them; if the baby is hungry, feed her." The authors mention three cases of patients "possessed with the devil." Gwendolyn, the hate-filled hippie, "was affiliated with a communistfront organization in college" which ruined her. Sheridan is "the brutal motorcyclist," and Stacey is "the violent folk singer."

Many emotional problems arise because parents permit their children to see them naked or in their underwear. The authors describe such situations as based on "modern frankness ... a complete perversion of the traditional role of parent toward child." It may well be that the ills of society and the maladjustments in children can be cured and righted if the parents seek psychiatric treatment for themselves. Such seems to be the logical implications of the authors' points of view.

Dr. Schwarz and Dr. Ruggieri indicate that they are writing for "the all-too-silent but peaceful majority." Hence the large and easy-to-read type and the frequent platitudinous oversimplifications.

A practicing psychiatrist, Dr. Viscott isauthor of Labyrinth of Silence, a novelabout a young doctor's search for his ownidentity and sanity in a Cambridge (Mass.)mental hospital.