Man-child; a study of the infantilization of man
David Jonas, Doris Klein

This is a book with a striking cover and an intriguing title but by neither, unhappily, can the book be judged. The argument that David Jonas and Doris Klein—a psychiatrist and science writer—want to make is that in biological terms man is not progressing but regressing to a more infantile state. In their view this is a good thing which may result in less war, more sensitivity, better sex and yet less population because of the “reduction of the sexual and maternal instincts.” Con ??— the Fourth Reich—will cuddle us, and we will abandon technology, play more games, think more intellectual thoughts, write more, do more art, and pop through “other creative out lets.”

“Man‐Child” amounts to an over elaborate and questionable extrap olation from two important psychi atric insights. First, that sometimes people get into trouble because they have learned patterns in their early family lives which the unfamiliar adult world rejects or scorns. And second, that often human beings are anguished and full of lively compas sion for themselves because they are not omnipotent but must trim their wails and make fewer waves since other peoples’ needs have a real existence too.