The oppression of youth (Harper colophon books ; CN 394)

This book is one of the few which takes a deeply compassionate look at young people and their feelings about coping in this confusing and complex modern environment. He courageously questions the assumptions which parents and adults take for granted as being in the best interests of youth. He even has the guts to openly confront their sexual oppression. He defines sexuality, "in the full sense of the word", as "mankind's instinctual drive to relate pleasurably with others" regardless of age (Ibid. 99). In his book, he discusses the need in all human beings, including young people, for sexual intimacy:"Tenderness is a quality of response or empathy between people. As with openness, the capacity for play. and being with and enjoying loved ones. Tenderness is developed in infancy and must be cultivated (Ibid.)"...as a person moves toward another, anything that generates anxiety' or is rejecting creates a crisis. The individual moving forward is stopped: stopping her results in frustration, tension, and anxiety'. This experience begins when parents impose limits on the child's behavior that has been heretofore aimed at pleasure and satisfaction. The prevention of satisfaction is destructive... to the individual as a whole person" (Ibid. 100-1)."The family and school severely cripple young people's capacity to relate in pleasurable and in intimate ways. Fears about the opposite sex and about one's own sex are inculcated in children..." (Ibid. 102)."The oppression of young people.. .is best exemplified by the repression of sexuality" (Ibid. 98).