"For
anyone personally or professionally involved with this issue,
this book is a worthy and valuable aid in controlling the problem,
not only by analysing its psychological components but also
by pointing out ways to manage them. It is well written, personally
direct, and based on extensive study of the hundreds of "boarding
school survivors" with whom Duffell and his collaborators
have worked over some 10 years. I can highly recommend it for
medical practitioners."
Professor
P Clarkson in
The British Medical Journal.
"A clear-sighted, frightening book about what we might
call the institutionalized child abandonment, which in England
takes the form of boarding schools and in America takes other
forms, among them corporate pop culture - heartbreaking, thoughtful,
lively and convincing."
Robert Bly, poet and author of
Iron John.
"Nick Duffell's tender and ruthless analysis of
the effect of boarding school life on girls and boys, both at the time and
later in life, will strike many painful chords and unlock many painful
memories. On almost every page one encounters a sentence, a quotation or an
incident that prompts a mental, " Oh my God, yes!" This book should be read by
everyone who was sent to boarding school, above all by those who barely
survived the ordeal."
Angela Lambert, author and
former ITN reporter,
columnist for The Independent, & The Daily
Mail.
"This book offers a unique insight into
the world of children, and especially the way in which young souls - who have a
right to be 'childish' - can be irreparably damaged by the experience of
boarding school. The book is thoroughly researched, and provides fascinating
perspectives on the inner landscape of childhood, largely by showing the deep
connections between the emotional, sexual and spiritual development of
children. By exploring how boarding can damage these connections, the author
makes a unique contribution to our understanding of childhood and
adolescence."
The International Journal of Children's
Spirituality.
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"This book is elegantly reasoned and passionately argued.
It will serve humanity by driving a well-placed nail into the
coffin of the misguided mythology of British boarding school
education. Surely, with all that is now known of child and adult
psychology even the upper classes must recognise the unkindness
of the doctrine of "toughening them up" and the lifelong consequences
of early exile from the parental, the authoritative, arbiters
of one's worth and welcome."
Jean Liedloff, author of The Continuum
Concept.
"A magnificent achievement, I will recommend it a lot"
Mark Dunn, Consultant Psychotherapist
at Guy's Hospital, London.
"If the Church of England is the Tory Party at
prayer, the Public School system may be called the Tory Party in the nursery.
Here are set out the traumas, deformations and truncations of character that
explain the British Establishment from the appalling Doctor Arnold to the
Thatcher Matronocracy. The British are known to be mad. But in the maiming of
their privileged young, they are criminally insane."
John le Carré, best selling author, and former MI6
member.
"A Powerful book."
The
Scientific and Medical Review.
"This book offers profound psychological and social keys
to understanding the mysterious British character, and the enduring
attitudes towards children which so often puzzles foreigners
and natives alike. Using references from the popular media,
from literature, from history and from psychology, Nick Duffell
skilfully unravels a web in a way which moves and fascinates
the reader. His plain-language explanations of psychological
phenomena such as 'splitting' and 'projection' will be useful
to all students of human nature, whether they are interested
in boarding education or not."
Reinhard Kowalski,Consultant Clinical
Psychologist in the National Health Service, author of Over
the Top, Discovering Your Self, and The Only Way Out is In.
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