The Origins of War in Child Abuse

by Lloyd DeMause

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, History, Parenting, Psychohistory

ebook

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

DeMause has made major contributions to the study of Psychohistory which is the study of the psychological motivations of historical events. It seeks to understand the emotional origin of the social and political behavior of groups and nations, past and present. Its subject matter is childhood and the family (especially child abuse), and psychological studies of anthropology and ethnology.

In a 1994 interview with deMause in The New Yorker, the interviewer wrote: "To buy into psychohistory, you have to subscribe to some fairly woolly assumptions [...], for instance, that a nations's child-rearing techniques affect its foreign policy".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd_de...

Reviews

[Tara Dobbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm almost done with this fantastic read: The Origins of War in Child Abuse by Lloyd deMause. I read it from the author's site. It has yet to be published into a physical book, which I want to house on my shelves as soon as possible. Be warned, this book is a heavy, extremely detailed, adult rated and graphic in nature type of read with many many historical references starting point about 10,000 years back in world history and plenty of footnotes and bibliographies to back up his findings. Because of this book, I will NEVER look at humanity, fiction, history, etc the same way again, not even myself and my 'abusive up bringing' the same again. I will never look at my parents, how they were raised is expressed in this book, the same way again EVER! Be prepared to get angry, disgusted, uncomfortable, your blood boil and by the last chapter you will be relieved, if you haven't already by watching society do better at raising children and teaching parents to not be violent, that there is hope in changing our world for the better for children everywhere. Please pass these links to everyone you know. We must lift the vale of denial of our past if we are to 'think of the children' in the future generations to come. This culture of violence to our children needs to stop at all costs!

[NormaCenva · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that stays with you. It has a professional up-to-the-point voice, and grips your attention from the very beginning. if you are easily spooked or can be upset in a second, you might need some time to read it, but in my personal opinion it needs to be as accessible as any sacred text reprinted for the millionth times.
Why is it so important to familiarise yourself with the contend of this book? Yes, it can be painful and you can loose some of your misconceptions and heart-warming illusions, but - truth has a price, and from the truth we can grow, both as a human collective and as Individuals.
Do you want to end violence forever? Do you want your children and grandchildren to know the society without wars and conflicts? Then there is work to be done, and getting informed is just the beginning.
Peaceful Parenting is the answer but if you don't have your facts straight it can become tedious and unproductive, so to avoid this problem get informed, and get active, join others already on the way to Change.

[Петър Стойков · Rating 4 out of 5]

Знаете, че някои хора си бият децата. Не само ги бият, ами даже ги пребиват. Също така, някои хора правят секс с децата си (и с чужди деца) колкото и да не ни е приятно да признаем това. Днес за тия неща се влиза в затвора. Ама преди не се е влизало в затвора.

Гледайки какви "традиции" относно децата има в различните народи по света днес (в Китай и Индия все още мъжете са значително повече от жените, защото бебетата-момичета не ги ценят и понякога ги давят веднага след раждането), няма как да не се замислим... дали пък преди, в по-дивите времена, нещата не са били още по-зле?

Според Лойд Демаус наистина са били МНОГО по-зле до степен всички деца през цялата история на човечеството да са страдали от синдрома на битото дете и ПТСД, че даже и кръвопролитните войни, изобилствали в миналото, според него да се дължат точно на увредената психика на практически всички хора тогава.

Тезата му е много интересна и наистина има какво да се каже по въпроса. Казването обаче не му се удава твърде, защото макар да привежда зашеметяващо количество доказателства и цитати за да подкрепи тезите си, Демаус се опитва да мине метър, като неправилно цитира цитираното, съзнателно и често съвсем очевидно пресилва нещата, чете извън контекст исторически текстове и ги интерпретира пристрастно.

Давам пример от българската действителност, за да стане ясно - явно не само у нас, а в много други страни е традиция да се казва "Пу, пу да не ти е уроки!" на бебето. Според Демаус това било обичай на старите жени да ПЛЮЯТ ВЪРХУ БЕБЕТАТА което било нехигиенично, разнасяло болести и показвало отношението на тормоз върху децата... Така и с много от другите му доказателства.

Тезата му за войната като резултат от психичните разстройства е очевидно повлияна от хипарския дух в психологията от 60-те и 70-те години, когато (то в някои среди и сега) на войната се гледа като на някаква патология, нехарактерна за човека. Съответно, психолозите се скъсват да търсят "причината" за нея, вместо да видят очевидното - че не войната, а мирът е нехарактерното, рядкото нещо в историята и е по-добре да търсят причините за него, за да можем да ги възпроизвеждаме възможно най-много.

Все пак, в описаните от автора практики по отглеждането на деца има известна истина, особено в тия на дивите племена и е интересно да се прочетат, па макар и с голяма доза критическо мислене и едно на ум.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book online and listened to the audiobook on YouTube. http://youtu.be/8oLl4oppAv4

Whether or not the author convinces the reader that the origins of war come from people being treated violently in childhood, it is useful to realize that childhood throughout the ages has been a horrible experience for many and it really does affect how people behave as adults.

I agree with the author's conclusion that giving a child a loving and nurturing childhood is one of the best ways to decrease violence in human societies and stop war. However, this is a slow process, as it is difficult for people who were abused, neglected, and treated poorly to move beyond this cycle of violence to become peaceful parents.

Groups of people who value peace recognize the importance of nonviolent childrearing and therefore support families in real ways. Unfortunately, in the US, many people are not convinced that peaceful parenting of children leads to peace in society (or they don't even value peace) and so as a group of people, our children still receive a lot of abuse from parents and other caregivers in the form of spanking, hitting, sexual abuse, etc.

Not too long ago we were reading about an NFL player hitting his 4-year-old son with a switch, and it was controversial, meaning some people supported a parent's right to do that. http://m.eonline.com/news/600054/adri...

It is obvious that as a group of humans, there is no consensus as to how to parent a child, and religions don't help. (See the movie Spotlight if you think what the author describes isn't happening nowadays.)

According to the author, we continue to have war because of the continued prevalence of non-peaceful childrearing which creates adults with alters, like a split in your conscious.

People who value peace know what children and families need to be successful: support. Support can come in many ways: education to gain better parenting skills, financial, emotional support, etc.

This book will be interesting for anybody who was abused as a child and for people interested in peace in the world.

[Steven]

The author RUINED this book with his political biases and agenda.
The book should be called: The Savagery of Humanity from the perspective of a left wing Atheist.
Yes. The examples of the brutal treatment of children, in the book, are both shocking and appalling (so much so that the author repeats the same examples 2, 3, and sometimes 4 times in different chapters in the same book- maybe this is a compilation of individual articles?). And we can tell that the author REALLY despises religion, by his numerous condescending allusions to “the imaginary man in the sky”. So if you are going to attribute child abuse and war to various religions throughout the world- it might be worthwhile to look at the treatment of children, and the initiation of war, in non-religious societies- right? Not in this book! Communist China and the Soviet Union come to mind. How did they treat children? How do they feel about war? No imaginary man in the sky there. The author scrupulously avoids both areas and only mentions communism once until chapter 11- saying that the famine in some African country was wrongly blamed on communism. He chronicles the US buildup of nuclear weapons but never mentions the USSR participating in the race. He goes into the failed Vietnam war but never mentions the USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan. He only mentions the treatment of children in the USSR to say how much it improved in the 1970s, even raising a great guy like Gorbachev.

The book is pure propaganda.
He has a theory that “growth anxiety” results in war because reactionaries are made nervous, by things like women’s rights, and need to fight a war to prove their masculinity. He says that this is further proven because countries in a recession don’t typically go to war. For him, correlation= causation. It COULD be that countries in recessions don’t go to war because they can’t afford to go to war. It also could be that issues like women’s rights are a sign of economic prosperity in a country and that prosperity sometimes goes along with being able to afford ill-conceived military adventures. It’s like saying that husbands only buy Rolex because they are made nervous by the increasing family wealth in their family and need to display a sign of dominance and masculinity. OR you could say that poor men can’t afford Rolex watches but rich ones can.

In the book, there are no progressives and conservatives. There are progressives and reactionaries. I wonder what he would think about the saber rattling progressives in America right now? He only mentions Obama to say how progressive he is and how well he was treated by his mother. I hope the people on the receiving end of the 26,000 bombs, that Obama dropped, are happy about how progressive he is and well treated he was. Hey! Isn’t it common knowledge that Obama’s mother dumped him off on her parents so she could pursue various men in foreign countries? Not mentioned in this propaganda piece disguised as a call for improvement. He wants government trained and hired peace counselors- who will go and counsel the heads of the government (the people that hired them and developed their training curriculum). Absolute half-baked, intellectually lazy, garbage.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was absolutely stunned several times through this book at how shookingly poorly children were treated in the past. Lloyd DeMause presents plenty of references which indicate child abuse occurred in every family of the past for some every single day, and in some Countries it is still there in alarming rate. He also presents a very convincing theory that countries that go to war because of violent child-rearing. Lloyd DeMause also states that other anthropologists deny the evidence of past child-abuse, which I belief has lead to wildly incorrect teachings in schools. It is simply to uncomfortable to think about child molestation, so for many people it feels better to just close their eyes. If you read this book, you'll have a chance at learning something closer to the truth. You may even realize that how children are treated defines what they demand of the government when they grow up. This I find interesting as I notice that today children are still not free, but most are forced to school, just as there is no free country in the world, everywhere authority rules.

[Andrew Price · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book argues war and violence in general is the inevitable result of childhood abuse. War is essentially re-enacting childhood trauma, replacing the parent or abusive figure with the motherland. Whether you believe it or not, the message should be nothing new. Don't abuse your kids, whether on a physical or psychological level. If you read this book you can learn about the disastrous consequences, and hear of the incredibly inhumane abuse suffered throughout history, across cultures and time.

[Joey Donovan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Incredible eye opener. If you have maintained even a moderate culturally-relativistic perspective on morality, this may force you to change your stance. Absolutely essential reading for anyone with an interest in the human sciences, in my humble opinion.

[Strong Extraordinary Dreams · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of really awful stories about how children were treated, with claims - mostly - connecting this (undoubted) mistreatment with subsequent war making. I understand the author, Lloyd DeMause, has written a history of childhood so this is very child-orientated.

This book's claims include:
- throughout the 19th century, 90% of mothers sent their children outside of the city of Paris to a wet nurse "and seldom enquired about their Survival "
- in 40 Islamic countries 60 plus percent of the highest educated people generatively mutilate the daughters.
- actual statistics for the UK and the US show that over half of the children are being battered and abused sexually.

These are big claims and, really, I would want to be convinced of each claim before I could be convinced of an argument based upon these claims. It's super intense, but so far I'm not convinced of some of these fundamental aspects. and given that it's an important subject it would be quite important to be able to really be sure of what's going on. So, if - iff - I find these incredible statistics to be accurate representations of what went on then ,well ,I'vereally been educated.. But surety and proof first.

Too many assertions. some facts will be listed and then the author will say and ... and then whatever he wants to add., many implying that certain actions in the distant past say a child's childhood are solely responsible for complex latter patterns.

I loved the author's psychohistory book, wow, and really wanted to be impressed by this book too. But it was impossible.

[Maximilian Josephs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding book. I read a few of the books that this one relies on for reference, and they are very interesting as well.

[Ando · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life-changing. Why aren’t schools teaching this stuff? I know the answer…

[Ben Gerber · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is very convincing at first. But whenever Demause touches upon a subject I have the slightest familiarity with it becomes clear that this book is useless. Here are some passages, all from the very same paragraph:

"When Rome fought the Punic Wars with Carthage they lost over a third of their population and gained nothing of value."

"Aztec armies would even fight 'Flower Wars' where they would split into smaller groups and kill their own fellow soldiers in order to feed the goddess."

"Caesar spent all the economic surplus of Rome on endless, useless wars with the millions of citizens of Germania and Gaul, moved solely by schizoid grandiosity. Caesar started the suicidal butchery of the Roman Civil Wars solely to save his 'honor.'"

Read about these subjects if you don't realize why these statements are absurd.

[Joao Trindade · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not an easy book to read without being shocked by the arguments it puts forward.
Reading about child abuse, rape and infanticide doesn't put you on a good mood for the rest of the day.

Before reading the book I was already convinced that child abuse explains aggressiveness in individuals.
The book helped me to strengthen this believe but honestly if I wasn't already convinced I don't think the book was going to change my opinion.

In summary it's an interesting read, but it won't change your mind.

[Lion · Rating 4 out of 5]

You only have to listen to the first chapter, it gets the point across sufficiently. I took in the rest, but these parts seem a bit more pet-theory-ish. Some claims should have been better researched, like the claim that medieval knights armor supposedly didn't actually work but was a psychological thing, and the proof is Agincourt. Not so: that's when it stopped working because the bow technology had changed.

The basic theme was still a significant influence that stuck with me.

[Heather Gleason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow. While the author lists numerous sources, I'm still skeptical or in denial. You would have to read it to understand.