ABSTRACT

This chapter explains why in the course of history adults have so strongly stressed the difficulties that young people have, and cause. On the basis of research into problem youngsters the whole generation is declared a problem category. Some historians say that adult compassion towards the young has grown in the course of centuries, others conclude that on the contrary 'loving' children is more a kind of constant factor in human evolution. The social changes, accompanied by changes in the nature of human relationships, have had a far-reaching influence on the development of the personality structure of successive generations. The psychic and relational process of civilization is particularly characterized by the increasing control of human passions; people learn to rein in spontaneous passions and to relate their own actions to the consequences for others. The chapter reviews the 'predictable child', the 'social renewal child', and the 'moral rearmament child'.