Analysis Of How To Land Your Kid In Therapy By Lar Gottlieb

1086 Words3 Pages

In Lori Gottlieb’s article, “How to Land Your Kid in Therapy” she provides evidence of how lavishing too much affection on your children can change them eventually. Several references in her article show how not allowing kids to experience unhappiness will in turn land them in therapy. Parents never consider that they can love their children too much and Gottlieb supports that, it is possible. The lack of competition, responsibility, conflict, or pain inhibits a child to become a well-rounded adult. Gottlieb uses expert commentary, analogies, personal experience, emotional appeals, allusions, research, and anecdotes to provide support for her claims. Through adequate evidence, Gottlieb successfully convinces her readers that not allowing children …show more content…

Gottlieb opens her piece with some background information about herself where she explains how her study transpired. As a clinical psychologist, she began to get more patients like “Lizzie”, patients suffering from depression and anxiety among other problems yet they had nearly perfect childhoods unlike the “textbook” patients she studied in training. “Instead, these patients talked about how much they ‘adored’ their parents […] After all, their biggest complaint was that they had nothing to complain about!” (qtd. in Gottlieb) By including her personal experience with her patients, she adds seriousness to the matter for parents who may brush off the truth. This aspect furthers the idea that this is not a rare one in a million case but if they continue the pushover parenting style their kids could possibly end up in therapy. Gottlieb exclaims that she comes across several patients through her career whose parents are obsessed with their kid’s happiness. The story where she hesitates telling her son about her dead friend, sparks emotional appeal and advice to parents struggling to change. “By telling him, I was communicating that I believed he could tolerate sadness and anxiety […] not telling him would have sent a very different message: that I didn’t feel he could handle discomfort.”(qtd. in Gottlieb) Sharing her story to show parent demonstrate to parents how to avoid hindering …show more content…

Wendy Mogel discusses with Gottlieb “college deans have reported receiving growing numbers if incoming freshmen they have dubbed ‘teacups’ because they are so fragile because they are so fragile that they break down anytime things do not go their way.” Gottlieb to prove her theory, those kids will not know how to deal with problems if they never experience them to learn. By providing research, the readers have no choice but to believe her. As a national adviser to schools, Mogel blocks the disbelief because she observes “teacups” across the country. Barry Schawrtz also conducted a chain of experiments “asked to draw a picture…one group of kids choose from among 24 markers […] the other among three…drawings rated ‘worst’ created by kids in 24-marker group”. (Gottlieb)By explaining, that more choices did not yield better results in the experiment rather than statements parents cannot object when this is a proven fact. Schwartz explains that fewer options help kids to commit to some things and let go of others a skill they will need later in life. “Research shows that people get more satisfaction from working hard a one thing, and others get left behind.” (qtd. in Gottlieb) Gottlieb begins with research to grab the reader’s attention and persuade them to yield fewer choices to their kids now or as adults, they will not be satisfied. People tend to

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