Argues that our struggle to become good parents can help us to become good persons.Becoming Good Parents goes beyond a psychological understanding of parenting to include a deeper explication of the philosophical (moral) and existential (spiritual) dimensions of parenting. It counters the contemporary notion that parents can be satisfied with simply being "good enough" in their parenting practices, which encourages a sense of complacency. Through everyday examples, illustrative use of Harper Lee's moral novel To Kill a Mockingbird, and a reinterpretation of the theoretical viewpoints of psychologists Erik Erikson, Heinz Kohut, and Rollo May, along with philosophers Iris Murdoch and Michael Gelven, the author argues that the struggle toward perfection (goodness) is a natural human impulse. Parenting provides an optimal context for the practice of character refinement, which can potentially contribute to the psychological and spiritual growth of both parents and children. Ultimately, the book demonstrates that by becoming good parents, we become good persons.

This book advances an integrative approach to understanding the phenomenon of psychosocial maturation. Through a rigorous, dialectically-informed interpretation of psychoanalytic and humanistic-existential-phenomenological sources, Mufid James Hannush distils thirty essential markers of maturity. The dialectical approach is described as a process whereby lived, affect-and-value laden polar meanings are transformed, through deep insight, into complementary and integrative meta-meanings. The author demonstrates how responding to the call of maturation can be viewed as a life project that serves the ultimate purpose of living a balanced life. The book will appeal to students and scholars of human development, psychotherapy, social work, philosophy, and existential, humanistic, and phenomenological psychology.

This book advances an integrative approach to understanding the phenomenon of psychosocial maturation. Through a rigorous, dialectically-informed interpretation of psychoanalytic and humanistic-existential-phenomenological sources, Mufid James Hannush distils thirty essential markers of maturity. The dialectical approach is described as a process whereby lived, affect-and-value laden polar meanings are transformed, through deep insight, into complementary and integrative meta-meanings. The author demonstrates how responding to the call of maturation can be viewed as a life project that serves the ultimate purpose of living a balanced life. The book will appeal to students and scholars of human development, psychotherapy, social work, philosophy, and existential, humanistic, and phenomenological psychology.

Argues that our struggle to become good parents can help us to become good persons.Becoming Good Parents goes beyond a psychological understanding of parenting to include a deeper explication of the philosophical (moral) and existential (spiritual) dimensions of parenting. It counters the contemporary notion that parents can be satisfied with simply being "good enough" in their parenting practices, which encourages a sense of complacency. Through everyday examples, illustrative use of Harper Lee's moral novel To Kill a Mockingbird, and a reinterpretation of the theoretical viewpoints of psychologists Erik Erikson, Heinz Kohut, and Rollo May, along with philosophers Iris Murdoch and Michael Gelven, the author argues that the struggle toward perfection (goodness) is a natural human impulse. Parenting provides an optimal context for the practice of character refinement, which can potentially contribute to the psychological and spiritual growth of both parents and children. Ultimately, the book demonstrates that by becoming good parents, we become good persons.

This book advances an integrative approach to understanding the phenomenon of psychosocial maturation. Through a rigorous, dialectically-informed interpretation of psychoanalytic and humanistic-existential-phenomenological sources, Mufid James Hannush distils thirty essential markers of maturity. The dialectical approach is described as a process whereby lived, affect-and-value laden polar meanings are transformed, through deep insight, into complementary and integrative meta-meanings. The author demonstrates how responding to the call of maturation can be viewed as a life project that serves the ultimate purpose of living a balanced life. The book will appeal to students and scholars of human development, psychotherapy, social work, philosophy, and existential, humanistic, and phenomenological psychology.

This book advances an integrative approach to understanding the phenomenon of psychosocial maturation. Through a rigorous, dialectically-informed interpretation of psychoanalytic and humanistic-existential-phenomenological sources, Mufid James Hannush distils thirty essential markers of maturity. The dialectical approach is described as a process whereby lived, affect-and-value laden polar meanings are transformed, through deep insight, into complementary and integrative meta-meanings. The author demonstrates how responding to the call of maturation can be viewed as a life project that serves the ultimate purpose of living a balanced life. The book will appeal to students and scholars of human development, psychotherapy, social work, philosophy, and existential, humanistic, and phenomenological psychology.