We are excited to announce that Parenting for Emotional Growth, a series of five books written by Dr. Henri Parens, is now available for free! In order to download the materials, go to http://jdc.jefferson.edu and search for “parenting for emotional growth.”

From the website’s description: “This textbook, on which the Parenting for Emotional Growth Curriculum, Workshops, and Lines of Development are based, is highly detailed and is based in psychodynamic theories that address parenting issues pertinent to optimizing the child’s psychological development, mental well-being, and abilities to adapt constructively. The presentation of materials is organized by the rationale that when parents know, understand, and can positively handle the child’s evolving emotional and experiential needs and psychological developments, the parents’ rearing strategies tend to better optimize their children’s developmental potential than when such knowledge, understanding, and handling are lacking. It is exactly because this educational approach has been shown to bring about growth-promoting parenting that our aim is the institution of parenting education alongside “reading, writing, and arithmetic” in the primary and secondary education of every child. In addition, through the Workshops, we want to reach those who have already become parents as well as those who work with children in order to heighten their growth-promoting efforts toward optimizing their children’s development.”

Henri Parens, M.D., is a local Philadelphia treasure and an internationally known child psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who has devoted his life to helping children and parents. His contributions to psychoanalytic theory include a large body of work on parenting and an expansion of the definition of aggression. He has written numerous books including an autobiography describing his own experience as a child escaping the Holocaust.