Talk to me about Lloyd deMause

[Super Pickle]

Is anyone familiar with his work?

An acquaintance recommended I read some of his writings as an extension of a very long and lively conversation that we had.

A lot of what he had to say made sense, but there were two big questions in my mind:

1.) IS HE FOR REAL?????? Meaning, is the child abuse that he claims happened in so many cultures throughout history well documented? What kind of evidence did he have to back up these accusations? Sometimes it seems like flat-out racism.

2.) He continually emphasizes that sexual abuse occurs in the family bed. Okay, but often I get the feeling that he thinks co-sleeping and sexual abuse are linked.

I am interested in reading further, as it provided much food for thought and seems to be important reading for someone interested in AP, but I would like to know if I'm missing something first.

Thanks.

[NoraJadesMama]

Hmmm. Good question. I read a recent book DeMause wrote on the sick history of childhood abuse. I was horrified, but also was concerned about the way he saw Western Civilization as having made some progress, chiefly by getting children out of the family bed, since that didn't seem based on any evidence (and flies in the face of my own understanding of co-sleeping). Also, he pulls out some of the worse comments from historical letters and such, and uses them to draw sweeping conclusions about how historically children have GENERALLY been hated and treated like dirt. I think it's really hard to figure out exactly how children were really perceived and treated in historical times, or how prevalent abuses were. His account left me feeling like it was more polemic than science.

I asked my dad about him. My dad has been active in DeMause's psychohistory world for a couple decades, and presented a critique of DeMause at one of the psychohistory conventions in New York. (I could dig up his paper if you are particularly interested.) I think my dad said that DeMause inherited a bunch of money as a young man and has poured it into his publications related to psychohistory. He is a man of a strong point of view, and has raised awareness of child abuse in our culture. And my dad really thinks he's onto something with the idea of psychohistory. On the other hand, he is not well respected among scholars and his work is not peer reviewed; even his journal is not peer reviewed--if he likes an article, it goes in, if he doesn't, it doesn't. Having the money to fund his own work and projects all on his own gives him a cushion from both the dangers and benefits of being a part of the larger intellectual community.

I feel a bit frivolous making these comments because it's been a year or so since I read DeMause's work and talked to my dad about him. But his name is so familiar to me from my dad's work over the years, I coudn't resist responding anyway.

[Super Pickle]

Thank you, Norajadesmama, I appreciate your responding. That is interesting that your dad is involved with psychohistory. It was actually my dad who recommended Alice Miller's work to me, which seems to have some things in common with DeMause.

[NoraJadesMama]

It looks like Jan Hunt's Natural Child Project has a bunch of Alice's work up. Here's DeMause's History of Child Abuse, that I was referring to.

http://www.psychohistory.com/htm/05_history.html

I'll ask my dad if he's heard of Alice Miller. I think that a lot of different scholars have used DeMause's work as a jumping off point (my dad included). Just looking at summaries of some of Miller's work it looks like she falls in that category (especially perhaps her focus on Hitler, perhaps that is the psychohistory angle) but it appears her work is distinct and, if Jan Hunt likes it, probably doesn't suffer from DeMause's misunderstanding of the family bed?