Angry Young Men: How Parents, Teachers, and Counselors Can Help Bad Boys Become Good Men

by Aaron R. Kipnis

Writing from personal and professional experience, Aaron Kipnis shares both the riveting story of his own troubled youth-and how he turned himself around-and the successful approaches he has used to help "bad boys" become good men. Angry Young Men offers specific, practical advice for parents, teachers, counselors, community leaders, and justice professionals-- everyone who wants to help at-risk boys become strong, productive, caring, and compassionate men.



"Angry Young Men is an extremely important book that is especially timely now during our current epidemic of violence by and against boys and young men . . . Aaron Kipnis has seen deeply, not only into the souls of troubled boys and adolescents, but also into those aspects of the spirit of our culture and our epoch that have turned an unprecedentedly large portion of our boys and young men into the perpetrators and victims of violence."--From the Foreword by James Gilligan, M.D., Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

Genres: Psychology

277 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Dr. Aaron Kipnis is a licensed clinical psychologist with a private practice in Santa Monica, California. He has worked with a broad spectrum of clients—from individuals and families in the upper 1 percent of the economy to those living on a dollar a day in the poorest regions of India. Since 1997, he has been a full-time psychology professor at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara County. His classes include a popular course on the deep psychology of Money. Dr. Kipnis has written five books, many book chapters and articles, a produced play, an award winning documentary film, and a screenplay. He has been an expert witness in court proceedings and a consultant to educational, mental health, corporate, and governmental organizations. Aaron is often featured on national news media, as a keynote speaker for professional conferences, and periodically offers Midas Complex workshops around the country. He lives in Topanga Canyon, California with his wife and two children.
For more information or contact with the author please visit http://www.aaronkipnis.com

Reviews

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although this was a book for a college class wow, does it give you a real perspetive of what adolescent life on the streets and in juvinile hall/detention centers. Its an eye opening book if you have an interest on how to help teenagers grown up its a definate insightful read.

[Cassandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that should be on every parent's shelf. Great read and it gives the reader a better view on how teenageres view the world.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this for a class and it was a really good book. The author has an amazing life story that he shares along with his experience as a counselor working with boys in crisis.

[Támara]

Basic overview of issues experienced by young males. Not entirely what I was looking for, but basic and common sense.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written by a professor of mine. Having worked extensively now with the population discussed I find this a helpful book for newer clinicians.

[Jbussen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why did I read this book? This is confirmation bias I don't need. I've known all this for decades as any half wit also does. Alas, As always, the people who should read this book will not. Getting tough on crime actually makes things worse and does nothing about the root cause of the problem. I had to stop reading and start skipping around because this book and it's subject just makes me angry and gives me that helpless feeling coupled with removing my last bit of faith in my fellow humans.

Our current prison, judicial, juvenile, systems are inadequate and outdated. It has to be the biggest human rights issue facing our country, yet we hear so little / nothing about it from the media because media is no longer the 4th estate but just another for profit and to hell doing our jobs industry. No atrocity is too great to reconsider profit. Especially now that prisons' are big business. The author proposes some very good solutions. However with Republicans "bootstraps", "just don't break the law", and other uncomplicated catch all ideas, half the country wouldn't consider backing reform or even questioning it. The world and it's myriad problems are nuanced, not black & white. But in an age of extremely simplified, mean spirited, "meme" social media ideas, I seriously doubt anything can be done.

Kipnis is a very good author and this book is readable, and relatable for even the most intelligent to the lay person. "Angry Young Men" isn't so much an account on rebellious male teenagers as an indictment on how criminalization, punishment, intolerance, poor mental health care and inadequate education led them there. Using his experience as a teenager as a backdrop to these topics, Dr. Kipnis creates one extremely persuasive argument after another about how parents, teachers and the government need to step up and support their young boys in a way that is neither dehumanizing or negative.

It must be miraculous for Kipnis to survive his ordeal as a teenager just to tell us stories that are not so dissimilar to other troubled adolescent boys' stories. Kipnis states that the effects of the criminal justice system have proven to be counterproductive. For example, Kipnis argues that just putting boys in correctional facilities or prisons does not solve the problem; it exacerbates it. This means hardening a boy's soul and turning them into delinquents, drug dealers and even murderers. Of course, Kipnis argues that jail isn't simply an evil thing and that it should be reserved to be mass murderers or volatile criminals. But for boys committing petty crimes and in desperate need of seeking help, it is the worst place you could put them. What's worse is that this gulag has become big business and an acceptable part of our American culture.

To counteract the dehumanizing effects of prison, Kipnis suggests that training programs, community services, adequate counseling and much-needed parenting as the only plausible options to save angry young men for going to a downward spiral. Without these, boys can never grow up to become mature, responsible adults or cure themselves from their mental and physical wounds. Boys are in serious need of compassion and without it, they will never operate in a society that will never understand them.

"Angry Young Men" is an engaging, horrifying and in the end hopeful account on how and why boys become dangers in the streets and a wake-up call to parents, educators and the United States government on how to control hardened, unpredictable boys without resorting to violence, punishment and cruelty. This book deserves to be read by anyone who has a troubled adolescent and by anyone who wants to glimpse on why there has been so many bad boys in America and how they will continue to increase.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

very helpful level-headed advice through a parenting crisis.