Parenting

Steven Tuber, PhD, ABPP, is professor of psychology and Director of Clinical Training in the doctoral program in clinical psychology of the City College of New York, where he has taught for thirty years. He is the author of several critically acclaimed books, including two on child therapy and one on projective testing.

• Part I: Theorizing on the Process of Parenting Parenting Across the Lifespan: Some Personal and Conceptual Musings / Steven Tuber, PhD, ABPPNot Your Mother's Identity: Good-Enough Parenting in the Age of Maximization / Lisa Samstag, PhD and Nick Samstag, PhDOn Being Essential: Parenting, Immigration, and Acculturation / Diana Punales Morejon, PhDWe Are Always Essential / Ken Barish, PhDPart II: Parenting and Its Impact on Clinical WorkThe Therapist’s Experience as Parent: The Complex Interaction Between Parent Process and Clinical Work / Leslie Gibson, PhDParental Humility / Kevin Meehan, PhD and Elizabeth Zick, PhDRage, Forgiveness, and Acceptance: Parenting Through Difficult Moments / Paul Donahue, PhD“I Can’t Stand Her”: The Role Of Hatred in Development / Marsha Levy Warren, PhDPart III: The Impact of Clinical Work on ParentingTransformative Aspects of Our Own Analyses and Their Resonance in Our Parenting and Work with Patients / Lauren Levine, PhDWhy Did You Choose Me?: Some Thoughts on the Wish to Have a Child and the Child’s Wished-For Parent / Banu Seckin-Ertal, PhDSelf-Disclosure, Reverie, and Countertransference as Essential Aspects of Psychotherapy / Monique S. Bowen, PhDBecoming a Grandparent: Memories, Identifications, and Reenactments / Jerry Meyer, MDGardening in the Softball League: How Teachers Parent / Benjamin Harris, PhD

In this book, the contributors expertly argue that successful parents realize the objectives of parenting depend on a host of factors, including the normative developmental needs of children and the contexts surrounding families. As children mature or familial contexts change, successful parents modify their objectives to match new conditions. The following statement appears within the work’s introduction: ‘This book has, at its core paradigm, an intrinsic paradox: while we must become essential to our children as early as possible in their lives in order to help them create an internalized experience of being valued, we must simultaneously give up this exclusive essentialness over time if we want them to develop a sense of autonomy and individuality.’ Thirteen chapters by clinicians and parents thoroughly explore topics such as various stages of parent roles, the essence of maternal/paternal identities, the stages of pride parents experience, the impacts felt by clinicians with clients dealing with parental issues, and the ability to recognize grandparenting as an opportunity to reenact and rework the original essentialness paradox. These topics are methodically explored with the central theme of how parents can maintain a continuity of purpose as they face normative developmental changes in their roles as parents.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.