Haven in a Heartless World: The Family Besieged Book

This book is a challenging read that sets out the authors ideas regarding the history of theories of the psychological development of children, the ways in which modern experts misunderstand the psychological development of children, and the social and political consequences of the mainstream acceptance of current theories.

I read this book because I have read a lot about Lasch, but actually read little of his work. I thought that he would provide a social, political, and economic analysis of how the family changed over the last one hundred years or so. Some of this material was present, but mostly as assertions and background assumptions. Much more of the work was an attack on those who attack Freud. That is to say, he presents convincing arguments that those who have attacked Freud in the middle twentieth century are wrong. They misunderstood him and the ideas they suggest should replace his are unconvincing. However, nowhere do I see any good explanations as to why someone should believe Freud in the first place. Lasch briefly explains some of Freud's ideas, but does this mostly to explain why his critics misunderstood him. I found most of the references to a century worth of anthropological, sociological, and psychological theories confusing. If you don't have a good background in any of these topics, you may want to choose another of his works.