The Magic Years: Understanding and Handling the Problems of Early Childhood » (50th Anniversary Edition)

Selma H. Fraiberg was Professor of Child Psychoanalysis and Director of the Infant-Parent Program of San Francisco General Hospital, University of California School of Medicine. Her articles were published widely in professional and popular magazines.

To a small child, the world is an exciting but sometimes frightening and unstable place. In The Magic Years, Selma Fraiberg takes the reader into the mind of the child, showing how he confronts the world and learns to cope with it. With great warmth and perception, she discusses the problems at each stage of development and reveals the qualities — above all, the quality of understanding — that can provide the right answer at critical moments.

CONTENTS

PREFACE

Part I. INTRODUCTION

1. All About Witches, Ogres, Tigers, and Mental Health

A Fable.

What Is Mental Health?

What Is Anxiety?

First: A Human Protector Against Danger.

The Ego Defends Against Danger.

"Laughing Tiger."

An Infant Scientist.

Imagination, the Intellect and Mental Health.

Part II. THE FIRST EIGHTEEN MONTHS

2. "Share Off Slumber and Beware..."

The New-Born.

"Why Does the Baby Smile?"

The Jig-Saw Puzzle World.

On Becoming a Person.

The Case of the Vanishing Object.

Travel and Perspectives.

Locomotion and the Solitary Self.

The Missionaries Arrive.

At Eighteen Months.

3. "Civilization and Its Discontents"

What Good Is A Theory?

Feeding and Feeding Theories.

Disturbances Connected with Separation Anxiety.

Activity Brings Problems, Too.

Introduction to Bowel Training.

Some Disturbances Connected with Bowel Training.

Prevention of Disorders Through Early Detection.

Part III. EIGHTEEN MONTHS TO THREE YEARS

4. In Brobdingnag

The Magician.

Abracadabra.

A Voyage to Brobdingnag.

Magic and Science.

"I"

5. Education Toward Reality

The Building of a Conscience.

Weak Spots in the Control System.

Helping the Child Overcome His Fears.

Part IV. THREE YEARS TO SIX

6. A Shift in the Center of the Universe

Toward the Age of Reason.

Of Mice and Men.

"Who Am I?" "Where Did I Come From?"

About the Oedipus Complex.

7. Education for Love

The Meaning of Sex Education.

The Parental Dilemma.

How Far Should the Child's Curiosity Be Satisfied?

On Giving Sex Information.

The Educational Role of the Parents during the Oedipal Phase.

Identification.

On Being a Girl.

On Being a Boy.

8. Education of Conscience

The Dawn of Conscience.

Discipline.

The Psychology of Punishment.

The Acquisition of Moral Values.

The Right to Feel.

Part V. CONCLUSION

9. Toward the Future

All Kinds of Fortunes.

Lessons from the Laboratories of Human Error and Disaster.

Lessons from a Model Institution.

Can We Insure Against Neurosis?

INDEX