ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book presents children whose parents Drs. Brody and Axelrad found among the very best, whose childhoods were mosdy happy, and who at age 30 were contented and successful. It discusses children with unhappy childhoods who dealt with unhappiness in two different ways. The distinction between internalization and externalization of distress is not always pure nor of fundamental importance in and of itself, but it provides a scaffolding for presenting the lives of the participants and understanding developmental processes. The book examines the lives of participants who were not doing as well as foreseen in view of their favorable parenting when they were infants. It looks at the children who have defied expectations and were doing much better at 30 than predicted at the end of their first year of life on the basis of adverse parenting.
