Coercion impairs children’s ability to reason

“Coercive behaviour tends to cause a coerced state of mind in the victim … [ahem] … and… it can impair the victim’s ability to reason about the thing in question.”
– David Deutsch


      

From the archives: The original post was posted on 19th June, 2000

“I was browsing a best selling parenting magazine and found this article:

‘Children aren’t happy without rules, without them they would be lost in this complicated world. Only when parents impose the necessary limits and teach them behaviors, the little ones learn to run his own affairs. […] Children prefer to be told what to do. A mother told us the following: ‘One day, when I was arguing with my daughter about the best moment to do her homework I was getting desperate and shouted at her: Do what you want! And she replied, crying: I don’t want to do what I want!’ Ines, 10 years old, doesn’t like to go to bed early but confesses: ‘I don’t like that my mother gives in because when I go late to bed I’m so tired the next morning I’m in a bad mood’.’

Anyone care to comment?”

“A mother told us the following: ‘One day, when I was arguing with my daughter about the best moment to do her homework I was getting desperate and shouted at her: Do what you want! And she replied, crying: I don’t want to do what I want!’”

I suppose it illustrates that coercive behaviour tends to cause a coerced state of mind in the victim … [ahem]

… and that this state is very painful; and that it can impair the victim’s ability to reason about the thing in question.

“‘Ines, 10 years old, doesn’t like to go to bed early but confesses: ‘I don’t like that my mother gives in because when I go late to bed I’m so tired the next morning I’m in a bad mood’.’

Anyone care to comment?”

In context, it also displays the Parental Conspiracy in all its nastiness.

See also:

David Deutsch, 2000, ‘Coercion impairs children’s ability to reason’, https://takingchildrenseriously.com/coercion-impairs-childrens-ability-to-reason

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