Henri Parens is a wise and caring teacher and clinician. This thoughtful, comprehensive, and practically helpful guide will support parents and teachers understand and manage a daunting task: children's anger and aggression.

Jonathan Cohen Ph.D., Co-President, International Observatory for School Climate and Violent Prevention

Over three decades of painstaking child observation and clinical work with children, adolescents, and adults has elevated Henri Parens to the authoritative position to comment upon the causes, manifestations, and amelioration of destructiveness in children. Deftly combining scholarly insight, commonsense pragmatism, and humane concern for all involved parties, Parens deals with limit-setting, punishment , and management of temper tantrums. His approach is anchored in psychoanalytic theory, social anthropology, and contemporary neurobiology and his goal is to help parents and mental health professionals deal with children's aggression. However, his eyes are also set on the farther horizons of taming human destructiveness at-large. Parens' book is simultaneously a clinical gem and a serious civic-minded document!

Salman Akhtar, MD, professor of psychiatry, Jefferson Medical College; training and supervising analyst, Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia

Henri Parens has written a true psychological gem. Extending his lifelong wisdom with child care, rearing and research, his book distills into easily grasped language not only the vicissitudes of aggression and hostility and how to prevent troublesome outcomes in child rearing, but also he considers a wide range of questions commonly asked by caregivers, giving them realistic, sympathetic, and creative responses. Dr. Parens is a tireless proponent of applying psychoanalytic work for the good of our communities and for those less fortunate than many of us. This gifted and altruistic man is a rare event on this planet.

Stuart W. Twemlow, MD, Menninger dept. Psychiatry, Baylor College of Medicine and Houston Galveston Psychoanalytic Institute

For mental health providers who treat children, this book provides a refreshing, comprehensive guide to understanding aggression in children from a developmental perspective.

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