Childhood’s End

http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_3_otbie-british_children.html ^ | Theodore Dalrymple

[ventanax5]

A system of perverse incentives in a culture of undiscriminating materialism, where the main freedom is freedom from legal, financial, ethical, or social consequences, makes childhood in Britain a torment both for many of those who live it and those who observe it. Yet the British government will do anything but address the problem, or that part of the problem that is its duty to address: the state-encouraged breakdown of the family. If one were a Marxist, one might see in this refusal the self-interest of the state-employee class: social problems, after all, are their raison d’être.

[varyouga]

Don't worry, the Islamists will set everything straight.

[okie01]

I've a pretty good idea how he'd treat the subject -- with well-founded contempt.

At some point, the children of the sixties became adults (and psychiatrists). As a result, the solution to all the anxieties of everyday life may be found in a pill bottle.

[sionnsar]

Let’s hope this never happens in the USA...

Look around you.

[Das Outsider]

I’ve seen a few of his essays over the years. IIRC he’s a British physician and Dalrymple is his pen name.

Correct on both counts. Once in a blue moon, he'll appear in The American Conservative.

[Das Outsider]

I've a pretty good idea how he'd treat the subject -- with well-founded contempt.

There's quite a bit of that in "Romancing Opiates," but not without sufficient support. If you're familiar with Dalrymple's style of writing, this one won't shock you.