Childhood, Well-Being and a Therapeutic Ethos

"No-one can now ignore the fact that a serious debate about the welfare of children has at last begun in our society. And, appropriately, it has started to open up a wider debate about the nature of learning and even the nature of human maturity. The essays in this collection are significant not only for what they say about childhood but for what they invite us to think about human growth and well-being in general. If 'therapy' is one of the key words in this collection, the other is 'play'. Therapy, so the editors argue, is not a matter of damage limitation--nor does it necessarily imply that we begin by assuming a state of 'victimage' or diminution on the part of all young people. Rather, it is to do with attempts to heal an entire social climate that is unduly obsessed with outcomes and panicky about wasting productive time, focused overwhelmingly on fantasies of individual success and damagingly clumsy in most of what it seems to think about relationships. If this excellent collection helps us think through not only the needs of our children but our own often unacknowledged needs, it will have achieved a very great deal. But meanwhile we owe much to the authors and editors of such a varied, engaging, and outspoken guide to our ills and puzzles, and to what we might need to address them, at last, with greater honesty."--From the Introduction by Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury

House, Richard

Foreword -- Editorial introduction: Therapeutic ethos in therapeutic, educational and cultural perspectives -- Childhood in Contemporary Perspective -- Childhood, well-being and a therapeutic ethos: A case for therapeutic education -- What is toxic childhood? -- The challenge of modern childhood -- The Good Childhood: An inquiry by the Childrens Society -- Childhood and Its Discontents the Specific Concerns -- Childhood toxicity and trauma: Asking the right questions -- The changing space of childhood and its relationship to narcissism -- Why love matters in early childhood -- Towards a Therapeutic Ethos for Childhood -- Resisting images of the diminished self in education policy and practice for emotional well-being -- The mind object and dream consciousness: A Winnicottian and a Steinerean rationale for avoiding the premature adultifying of children -- First catch your child -- Play, Playfulness, and Childrens Well-Being -- The importance of play and playfulness -- Everyday play activities as therapeutic and pedagogical encounters -- From playing to thinking: How the Kindergarten provides a foundation for scientific understanding -- Playexcerpts from They F*** You Up and Affluenza -- Editorial conclusion: Therapeia today (re-instating the soul in human experience)