Benevolent education called into question

He does not want to go back to grandpa’s education where rigid authoritarianism and lack of interest in the child transformed family homes into “palaces of slaps”. But Didier Pleux, a psychotherapist breaking with the prevailing discourse, criticizes the benevolent or positive education of today for its total lack of common sense. No, he says, opposing Françoise Dolto, the baby is not a full-fledged person, but a person in the making who must be taught the rules of life.

And, no, he continues, opposing Boris Cyrulnik, not every dysfunctional teenager has necessarily lacked affection and security in his early childhood. Today, what teens in crisis have missed the most, says the clinician who…