This book shows parents, clinicians, and policy-makers how the love relationship between parents and children is the workshop of the child's maturing personality, connecting everyday moments in family life to the growth of the child's sense of values and meaning. The book explains how children develop into fine, morally strong adults through their identification with loving parents, and combines practical wisdom about ordinary family experiences with an in-depth discussion of emotional development from birth through adulthood. Elizabeth Berger, MD, is a child psychiatrist and nationally acclaimed parenting expert. Her book looks beyond the parent's response to "negative behavior" to understand the meaning of the child's behavior within the growth process, while helping parents gain mastery of their own emotional reactions as a key to assisting this process. Rich vignettes of ordinary families, along with professional case studies of trouble youngsters in therapy, make this intelligent and well-written book the essential tool for parents and others looking not just to "manage" children but to understand and to nurture their spirits. This book is organized into the following sections: (1) Developing Trust and Personal Integrity in Children; (2) Why Character Counts; (3) Intimacy from Birth through Preschool; (4) On the Parent's Good Authority; (5) Building Self-Discipline; (6) From Collapsing to Coping; (7) The Struggle to be Nice; (8) The Emphasis on People; (9) Citizenship in School; (10) The Floundering Student; (11) The Adolescent's Needs; (12) Fostering Maturity; (13) Male and Female; (14) Romance and Marriage; and (15) Towards the Eternal.