Isaac D. Balbus teaches social and political theory at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is the author of Marxism and Domination (1982) and The Dialectics of LegalRepression (1973), co winner of the 1974 C. Wright Mills Prize.

"...A refreshing dose of epistemologically significant 'reality scholarship' that shreds the vaunted veil of the passive voice of academia." -- Maurice Hamington, ypatia"This path-breaking book should be read by anyone interested in feminist theory, parenting theory, parenting practice, or the links between them." -- Sandra Lee Bartky, University of Illinois at Chicago"I couldn't put the book down. Both in its content and its form, this book is feminist theory, psychoanalytic theory, and 'men's studies' at their very best." -- Sandra Harding, UCLA"Endeavoring to bring closure to fourteen years of research and to synthesize two previous attempts to write a critical theory of Western child rearing, Balbus here seeks to examine the enormous impact of Benjamin Spock on families in the United States, analyze his own practice as a father, and answer the Marcusean question of "what it means to be a radical intellectual" by demonstrating the link between "enlightenment" and embodiment." -- SIGNS, Summer 2002"By making himself the case study for his own project, Balbus has taken a brave step in the effort to break down the walls between theory and practice." -- SIGNS

• Introduction 1 Birth 2 Discovery 3 The Institute Lecture 4 Grandiosity 4 Separation Anxiety 6 Shayla 7 Wife-Mother 8 The Article 9 Tripping 10 The Crash 11 Separation-Individuation 12 Development 13 Back to the Beginning 14 Postmodernist Problems 15 Conclusion