At the theoretical level, however, [Dr. Benjamin] Spock can be accused of being permissive insofar as he has promoted the theory of Sigmund Freud. Parents were told to be exceedingly careful not to damage puerile psyches by disciplining them, for undoing such damage might entail years of psychoanalysis if it could be accomplished at all. In Spock's view children are fragile reeds who are extremely sensitive to minor parental inconsistencies and emotional innuendo. Indeed, if one takes psychoanalytic theory seriously it is possible to imagine that bad days for a mother at a crucial stage of childhood development can irrevocably arrest the child's development at one stage or another. The inevitable outcome of Spock's -- and Freud's -- theory of emotional development has been many parents who are inappropriately overwhelmed by guilt, paralyzed by inaction, and too often unable to say "no."
Spock has acknowledged that attempts to follow his child-rearing prescriptions frequently lead to permissive parents at the same time as he had vehemently denied that he is personally permissive.
E. Fuller Torrey, M.D., "Freudian Fraud: the Malignant Effect of Freud's Theory on American Thought and Culture," p.140-141 (1992)
(This ideology resulted from the whole practice of raising children to remain children rather than to be adults. Is it any wonder why those who run our colleges, universities, and politics are the way they are -- spoiled brats who always want their way?)
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