Customer Reviews

The Case Against Adolescence: Rediscovering the Adult in Every Teen

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I have read Dr. Epstein's interview and an article on the net, and was very excited to get this book. Sadly, while his main idea is liberating and refreshing, the book itself is utterly disappointing. It is full of weak argumentation, selection and substitution of data, poor understanding of cultural context and betrays a certain agenda. In fact, if you are interested in the concept, IMO you can safely skip the book altogether and instead google Dr. Epstein's articles, "The Myth of Teen Brain" and "Trashing Teens" - you'll get the main points and learn about Dr. Epstein novel research methodology, w\o the accompanying eyebrow-raising junk.

Dr. Epstein makes a bad call to foray into the history of childhood in order to support his argument against adolescence. The result is the opposite: he shoots himself in a foot. He follows Aries's controversial "sentimentalist" point of view that the childhood itself had not existed until recently. He cites, e.g., Jean Ledloff's and Margaret Mead's work, which supposedly shows children fully integrated in the adult society, working alongside grown-ups. In reality, Ledloff has observed that yakuana children grouped themselves by age and spend a lot of time with their peers; even the vocabulary of different age groups differed considerably. They certainly weren't expected to perform to adult's standards, i.e., weren't considered fully competent. Mead's and other researcher's extensive studies also showed that the maturity gap - the time period between puberty and the acquisition of full adult responsibilities - has existed in virtually all cultures. It was decidedly much smaller than it is presently in the west, but denying its existence is inaccurate.

Dr. Epstein cheerfully describes traditional cultures, free of adolescent turmoil; apparently he isn't aware that his accounts of child suffering, labor and war participation look decidedly bleak. One cannot help thinking that if Aries is right and childhood, as well as adolescence, hadn't existed, than thank God almighty it has been invented. Consider the following passage: "... as many as eleven million young people live on the streets in India [..] young people constitute between 10 and 33 percent of the workforce in various industries [..] Many develop "resiliency" and "self-preservation skills," but sometimes it means resorting to activities such as pimping, prostitution, theft, drug peddling and begging [..] adolescence is still largely absent in [..] this vast country," - JEEZ, where do I sign up? %\

Dr. Epstein's understanding of forces at play in other cultures is very poor. His account of Russia is off base, as is his take on a supposedly trouble-free adolescence in Japan (apparently, he has never heard of hikikomori and NEET). More importantly, Epstein seems to confuse the young adult's psychological health and well-adjusted behavior with lack of individuation (not to be confused with individualism). The lack of individuation results from authoritative parenting and growing up in the culture where the person has little intrinsic value apart from being a part of the community - a cog in the wheel. When this is beaten into the person's head from the earliest age, rebellion is simply not an option. Epstein misses this aspect of the problem entirely. While writing about the trouble-free adolescence in Philippines, he mentions the following: "Daughters are more obligated than sons to work abroad to support the family during tough times". In plain English, that means that young females are routinely sold into human trafficking (prostitution or domestic service=servitude) and are expected to take it in stride for the good of the family. Could it be that THIS is what the Filipino teens are beginning to rebel against?

The latter example illustrates that the traditional trouble-free adolescent experience has been markedly different for young males and females, and that is also lost on Dr. Epstein. As bad as the tendencies in western adolescence have been, they have done away with the exploitative marriages of young females. Dr. Epstein speaks very positively about early marriages, glossing over the fact that those were often done against the woman's will, and limited the public and historical roles of women. His apparent fixation on barely pubescent brides has made me somewhat uncomfortable, and his reference to Nabokov's Lolita as "the sexy young siren" has made my jaw drop. I really, really hope that this is not what I think it is, and that Dr. Epstein simply hasn't read the book he is referring to.

He makes another blunder in his psychological analysis of "The Lord of the Flies" as it pertains to the problem of child competence and adolescence. His take on it borders on ignorance. Let's for a moment forget the metaphorical nature of the "Lord of the Flies" plot, and accept that it has a literal meaning relevant to our topic. Dr. Epstein states that "the story is an acknowledgment that young people can be tough and self-sufficient, at least when the adults aren't here to take care of them". If you are fuzzy on the book's content, pick it up and you'll see that those self-sufficient young people self-organize in a brutal way and kill their peers - I can't believe that Dr. Epstein considers it a sign of those kids' competence. Second, he states that "the characters never broke down [..] until the adults showed up [..] they were never child-like - until they were expected to be". I am utterly flabbergasted that a professional psychologist would make such a statement. The kids broke down precisely because everything that was happening to them has just too much, and now they finally didn't have to hold themselves together on the brink of collapse. Indeed, people can survive unbelievable hardships, but the stress robs the person of vital energy and may irreversibly stunt psychological growth. This has been described multiple times in the literature - surely Dr. Epstein is aware of that?

As if this all wasn't bad enough, Dr Epstein condones corporal punishment for teens, and it is here that all of the above comes together. Under the guise of teen liberation it is the same old obey-your-elders, toughen'em up, spare-the-rode-spoil-the-child nonsense, discredited thousand times over.

This ties directly to Epstein's view of anti-child labor movement as well-meaning but ultimately misguided and harmful to kids. Make no mistake: if Dr. Epstein's idea were to take hold, you will see young adults and, by extension, children, back in the sweatshops in no time. The looming economic crisis may provide a real necessity for this, and Dr. Epstein's concept will serve as an ideological basis for such movement. As usual, that will only apply to poor and underprivileged teens and children. Conveniently, those more privileged, such as Dr. Epstein's own children, have nothing to worry about. For them there will always be wilderness camps where they could be toughened up for a few thousand bucks, while their parents are busy raising their "easy" siblings or doing whatever interests them more (see p. 103 of the book for context).

The above, however, is the worst-case scenario. I do not forsee anyone taking Dr. Epstein's utopian recommendation of competence-based transition to adulthood. While age is indeed the legal barrier of entry into the adult society, it is a proxy not for general maturity but rather for a minimum set of skills. The demand for the actual competence in our fast-paced society changes daily. Therefore, formal degreed education remains a good benchmark for the person's skills - and as time goes by, more and more education and related experience, including low level work, is needed to prove your worth. Obtaining one's M.Ds and PhDs and building the CV takes time and effectively shuts young people out of the adult world.

The limitation of the young people's entry into the society IMO stems not so much from cultural factors but from the structural ones. The western society is getting increasingly complex, while the basic resources, for the first time in the history of humanity, are available almost to all. In such situation, it is more rational for the society to keep some of its members idle rather than try and include them into the structure, jeopardizing its orchestrated work. A similar situation exists in ant colonies and in the communities of other social insects. In any ant hill, the majority of worker ants are idle. Young ants are taught nothing and instead are routinely chased away by older ants. Food is not a limited factor in the colony. But it is risky to disrupt the working groups, where leaders have proven themselves and everyone understands the hierarchial structure and works together. As a result, the young ants learn what they can on their own and create their own groups, which in the opportune times find ways to be useful for the colony.

In my view, the only way to combat the real problem of dysfunctional adolescence in the western world is being a counter-culturist within your own family. This means maintaining close and trusting relationship with your growing children, fighting the influence of media; encouraging your teens to homeschool themselves, take advantage of volunteer opportunities, facilitating their business initiatives - in short, helping them develop self-reliance, resilience and leadership qualities in a nurturing environment.

That is the question posed by Robert Epstein in this new and groundbreaking book, "The Case Against Adolescence." As a psychologist who works with teens, I was eagar to read Epstein's book after seeing reviews about it, and I wasn't disappointed. It is a fascinating read, starting with an in-depth history of how adolescence came to be created and from there, Epstein argues strongly against infantilizing our young people and later asks provocative and necessary questions about our teens, such as "Is there really a teen brain?" By the end of the book, there is some prescriptive advice about how our society must change in order to help rediscover the adult in every teen. With all of the teen turmoil and infanitilization of the young that goes on in this country, I was beginning to think that the term "responsible teens" was becoming an oxymoron, but after reading "The Case Against Adolescence," I am hopeful that our society can start back on the path to teaching our teens to be successful adults. If you have kids, read this book, it will change the way that you interact with, and deal with them on a daily basis for the better.

Robert Epstein's book proposes what our friend Al Gore would probably call a "risky scheme." After a dismal century in which we have progressively infantilized our teenaged youth into crazed adolescence Epstein proposes to end it, not mend it. The evidence shows that young people in their teens are not helpless children, he argues, but capable, resourceful, and creative. The reason young people act like crazy adolescents is that we--the adults of modern western society--have made them that way.

Epstein argues that it is time to end the extended childhood of our children. He proposes that any young person could obtain emancipation routinely by passing competency tests. Once a young person becomes emancipated, of course, they obtain not just their adult rights, but also their adult responsibilities. When you start to think about it, instead of just react to his proposal, you realize that it is a very Big Idea.

Suppose that kids could start work at twelve if they passed a literacy and numeracy competency test. Suppose they could get the right to drink, drive, get married, work, whatever, if they passed the appropriate competency and judgment test. Would this teenage emancipation loose a plague of teenage mayhem upon our nation?

Hardly. In fact the opposite would be true. We would put the monkey on the kids' backs where it belongs. Say, kid, did you just buy alcohol for an unemancipated teen? Your right to purchase alcohol is hereby revoked! Did your parents chuck you out because you were incorrigible? Well, what do you expect? You're grown up now, pal; your parents don't have a legal duty to support you.

If you are opposed to the adolescent society, where the government treats adults like children, you've got to like the idea of emancipating capable young people into adulthood through competency testing. It brings the whole question of the welfare state's presumption of helplessness into play.

That's a risky scheme that anyone could love.

Robert Epstein's remarkable commentary, "Let's Abolish High School," in the April 4, 2007, Education Week, in which he argues for "competency-based" schooling --- allowing students who demonstrate the desired knowledge to leave school to join the adult world and for dramatically reduced restrictions on youth participation in the labor market --- is the reason I am buying THE CASE AGAINST ADOLESCENCE.

I agree with Epstein: The present child-labor-law-compulsory schooling regime is an historical aberration. It infantilizes young people, artificially inducing emotional and social turmoil in them and makes them hate school.

In response to standard top-down thinking on the drop out "crisis" in an editorial in the Fayetteville (NC) Observer, I had the following letter published:


Education outside of confinement
Fayetteville Observer
March 11, 2007
http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=256746

"Increasing the legal dropout age from 16 to 17 or even 18 should be the first order of business at the state level," writes the Observer ("Reality Check," March 6).

Your editorial board may want to consider the fate of the child described below, had his state then required school attendance to age 18:

Started school at age 8½. Returned home in tears after three months. Teacher called him "addled." His mother took over, reading with him.

At 12 he persuaded his mother to let him apply for the post of newsboy on the Port Huron to Detroit train (left at 7 a.m., returned at 9:30 p.m.; six-hour layover in Detroit for library time).

He sold fruits and produce from Port Huron to Detroit and evening papers on the return trip. At 15, he bought a printing press and started a train-focused newspaper.

Total formal classroom instruction: three months. Productivity as an adult: 1,000 patents.
(From "Notes on Edison: The Man Who Made The Future" by Ronald W. Clark.)

Institutionalization to age 18 may not be in every child's interest -- or even contribute much to his education, as the biographies of many great Americans who lived before the era of compulsory schooling will attest.

Tom Shuford
Lenoir

As one who have been doing presentation on the same issue of falsely extended childhood and the great harm this has caused across the globe, I was stunned by the breadth of this book. Best easily accessible documentation I've come across in describing the problem.

I may not be in full agreement with Dr. Epstein's solutions but the problem assessment is well worth the price of this book.

There are scant books that I put in the 'MUST READ' category by parents, educators, religious leaders, and politicians. This is at the top of the list. I've seen so many examples of mature young adults that most would categorize as 'adolescents' to know that the author is on target.

That said, I believe Dr. Epstein could have been more persuasive if he had formatted the contents a bit differently and made it slightly more concise. Still, it is much faster reading than John Taylor Gatto's 'The Underground History of American Education' - another paradigm shifting work.

It is interesting to note at the polarization of the nine opinions so far on Amazon. Five '5 Stars' and Four '1 Stars'. I believe many of the 1 star are making their evaluation on a few pages of content, and ignoring the larger whole. This makes the 1 star rather unbalanced compared to the 5 stars.

I've worked with those who would be considered adolescents for fifteen years. Trends and fads change and the pop cultural landscape is in constant motion, but there are a few things that have remained constant over the years in the lives of the many young people I have worked with. There are exceptions, but in general the young people I have worked with have been eager to be given responsibility, the want to be listened to, and they want their ideas to be given validity. They want to make their own decisions and be respected as legitimate members of society. In short, they would much rather be treated as adults than the pseudo-children our culture forces them to be. In THE CASE AGAINST ADOLESCENCE, Robert Epstein examines the issue in detail and makes a well-argued case written for lay people as to why adolescence is really just a myth that we perpetuate upon our young people for our own selfish reasons. Though acknowledging the limitations of young people, the book largely presents young people in a positive light and recognizes them for the people they are instead of the pseudo-children our society wants them to be.

There are many who will disagree with Dr. Epstein. From my own personal experiences and other research I have explored, I mostly agree with the findings and arguments that Dr. Epstein presents in THE CASE AGAINST ADOLESCENCE. People have argued with me before when I have told them I do not believe there is such a thing as the phase of "being a teenager" and that a person is either a child or an adult. It is easy to argue with me, a person who has no psychological background. It is more difficult to at not least consider Dr. Epstein's arguments. He is a psychologist who is national recognized, is the former editor-in-chief of PSYCHOLOGY TODAY, and is the father of four children.

THE CASE AGAINST ADOLESCENCE is divided into three major sections. Dr. Epstein begins his case against adolescence by examining the history of youth culture in America, how it was created, and examining if such a period of life exists in other cultures outside of the United States. The second explains, and is supported by several studies, how that by infantilizing the young adults of our country we are doing damage both to them and to our own country. The last section tries to provide some solutions about how we can change and begin treating young people as the adults they really are.

The first two sections of the book are very strong. Dr. Epstein presents a strong case of how and why the age of adolescence was created and provides a very strong argument as to why we should abolish it and begin treating young people as the adults the really are. There are a few points in the first two sections of the book where it feels like the same point is being made over and over again. It does provide additional information to support the case, but doesn't make the reading as enjoyable. Still, there is enough insight and varied information to make the first two sections of the book compelling reading.

However, it is in the third section of the book that THE CASE AGAINST ADOLESCENCE flounders. After presenting such a strong case against adolescence, Dr. Epstein fails to really provide any strong solutions for ending adolescence. I realize that this is part of the intent; that once we as a people realize there is a problem with the fantasy state of life that we have created that we need to come up with our own solutions. Still, I feel the book would have been even more compelling if Dr. Epstein seemed to have put as much research into finding solutions as he did into presenting the case against adolescence.

Overall, despite the repetitive arguments and the weak third section, I found THE CASE AGAINST a highly compelling read. I highly recommend this book for anyone who works with young people in any capacity as well as for any young people themselves.

Overall, this book is a worthwhile read simply because the subject is so underrepresented. I agree with the general premise that teens are currently being treated like children, that they need more responsibility and less freedom, and that it is a societal/cultural problem. As other posters have already said, the way he arrives at that conclusion is somewhat flawed. I think he tried too hard to make this a lay persons' book and sacraficed some of the detail that would have made his arguments more convincing. He really falls short in the solutions portion of the book. Given that societal change is slow in coming - there is no way we are going to start testing people for adulthood any time in the near future (please!), he could have included some smaller scale solutions for parents and teachers. He spends a lot of time documenting the limitations on teems - the have to attend school, they aren't allowed to work, they can't sign contracts, own property, etc. etc., but he doesn't make any suggestions for how parents or teachers can ameliorate these constraints to any degree. I came away thinking, ok, I want my kids to be responsible, and not be childlike at the age of 26(the current age at which we become adults, according to his research), but what actions can I take within our current society to let them grow up?

I found this a very interesting, thought-provoking work. I really enjoyed reading it, though it does tend to drag a bit at points. It elicited a lot of thought and good productive discussion between my wife and me. I found it well worth reading.

Why then, did I only give it three stars?

Two reasons: 1) I couldn't quite figure out which book I was reviewing. 2) It presented a lot of potential, but didn't live up it to it.

When people would ask me what the book I was reading was about, I replied, "It is a fascinating book that suggests that teenagers do a lot better when they are given responsibilities." However, this isn't really what the book is about. Rather, it argues that teenagers should be given fully adult privileges as soon as they pass some basic competency tests. These concentrate on giving teens the unfettered ability to make decisions without having to be fully responsible for those decisions. For example, Epstein argues that teens should be able to drive as young as they can demonstrate competence (or at least as young as 13), yet how many of these young drivers have the resource capacity for fully supporting that decision: purchasing the car, garaging it, purchasing the insurance, maintaining the vehicle, and even buying the gasoline for it? Certainly some do, but is the solution aimed at the general population and not just a select few entrepreneurs or independently wealthy?

When the book presents a survey of the transition to adulthood in various cultures in time and place, it is fascinating. However, it leaves out a very significant set of cultures. Much comparison is made between pre-industrialized cultures and cultures far different from American culture. No comparison is made between our culture and other Western European or Mediterranean cultures. The differences between American culture and Japanese, Indian, or African cultures are so vast that any differences could be due to a million things. European cultures are more basically similar to ours, yet I suspect there are significant differences in what they expect of teenagers. It would be much easier to map and isolate differences between cultures that have generally similar foundations.

As a book outlining some of the issues with our current approach to adolescence, the book is fantastic. As the starting point for some serious consideration of the topic, it is great. As an examination of the capabilities and competencies of teens, it is quite good. Unfortunately, it only addresses the pluses and ignores completely any problems, painting all teens as competent. It is also highly selective in what it presents to demonstrate these competencies. As a review of the different roles of teens in different cultures, it is pretty good, except for a substantial hole in cultures similar to America. As a review of the creation of adolescence in our culture, it is mediocre. The presentation is interesting, but highly slanted. During the first two sections of the book, I looked forward to productive suggestions on correcting the problems. I was disappointed that the solutions covered barely a chapter of highly repetitive suggestions for competency testing. Hoping for real, practical ideas instead I got highly-infeasible vague theories.

Epstein does a lot to show that adolescence didn't exist prior to the Industrial Revolution. However, he never examines whether adolescence is a necessary result of it. In pre-industrial societies, teenage girls were typically married. When they did so, they had a substantial social system to support themselves. They typically lived with or near their husband's family. They had a supportive network of experienced mothers around them. They had a limited number of things they needed to know to take care of their homes and raise their children. The teenage boys typically followed their fathers into their work. The things they needed to know were more practical and hands-on. The situation today is far different. Without reverting to a pre-industrial society, would it even be possible to abolish adolescence? If we did so, would it consign the majority of people to a subservient, ignorant role? Would that solution be any better than today's situation? Unfortunately, we don't know because these are issues that Epstein has chosen not to address.

The book has a lot of good ideas. It is causing me to reexamine how I raise my teens. Unfortunately, while some elements of the book are very good others are quite weak. It raises good points but ignores other issues. In the end it wanders off without good suggestions, barely considering the complexities of the solutions it proposes. My best hope is that it serves as a jumping off point for further thoughtful consideration in the area.

It's about time. The time has come for a frank public discussion about the problems of adolescence and how to solve them, and Dr. Epstein has gotten the ball rolling. Dr. Epstein very convincingly lays out the causes of teen angst and violence in Western society, and proposes a set of reasonable solutions.

Some of Dr. Epstein's ideas and recommendations may seem radical, but if you approach this very important book with an open mind, it will open your eyes. Childhood, the period of life before maturity, has been extended to unnatural lengths in our society, with disastrous results. Our young people are brilliant, mature, capable, and competent, and we owe it to them to let them show it. If you're the parent of a teenager, or a school teacher or administrator, or if you're a teenager yourself, this book is a must read.

Epstein accommplishes what he sets out to do: make the case against adolescence. To do so, he refers to a number of research studies and historical accounts, providing a reasonable explanation of how they support his thesis, while also not demonizing the people who brought the changes about. Whether all his interpretations all accurate can, of course, be debated, but there is enough substance here to justify a closer look into what we take for granted.

The main point seems to be that teens are more capable than we give them credit for. Much of the research supports that conclusion. The research and examples themselves may be a cause for alarm: stories of young brides, soldiers, etc. He makes it very clear that these are to show that some teens (but not all) can handle adult responsibility. By treating all teens the same, and treating them more like children, and not giving them a real reason to be less self-centered, should we be surprised when they act immature?

I didn't realize how many laws have been added over the past 100 years to restrict adolescents, and as Epstein points out, they don't always make sense and in many ways create another class of citizen. And in the process, adolescents have too much freedom in some ways, but not enough freedom to have responsibility for their decisions and grow up.

The fact that some reviewers zero in on corporal punishment mystifies me. It in the context of many other issues, he says that in 'some' cases it may be useful, but in the vast majority it's not. There are a number of people who would agree with that notion. Further, in allowing a teen to be an adult sooner, corporal punishment would then be assault.

As for solutions, I'll give Epstein credit for trying to offer some, which he himself admits may not all work. I'm not sold on a competency test, but perhaps there is some other solution than an arbitrary age. There isn't a simple solution to systematic problems, but this book is a good starting point to the issues relating to adolescence in American society.