As a parenting counselor, it is not too difficult to trace the cause of our troubles back to its origin. I hate to say it, but our problem started with American icon, Dr. Benjamin Spock.

Spock’s child rearing book “Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care,” first published in 1946, sold 750,000 copies the first year, has since sold over 50 million copies, and according to Dr. Spock’s web site, is second in sales only to the Bible. Life magazine certified the depth of his influence, naming Spock among the 100 most important people of the twentieth century.

Within a decade after Spock’s first book, a perceptible change began to develop in American families. Under Spock’s influence, parents were watching their children become sassy and contentious, and increasing numbers were seeing them become juvenile delinquents and criminals. Over the last 50 years this out of control behavior has led to a 300 percent increase in the rate of violent crime.

As the crime rate started to crawl up, SAT scores began to drop. Teenagers began to exercise less moral restraint and revealed an increasing contempt for authority. The free-love hippy movement and student protests were the inevitable outcomes of Spock-inspired parenting.

Doctor Spock was aware of his negative influence upon parents. In a 1968 interview with the New York Times, Spock admitted that the first edition of his child-rearing book had contributed to an increase of permissive parenting in America. "Parents began to be afraid to impose on the child in any way," he said. In his 1957 edition he tried to remedy that, but his rewrite didn’t succeed. Spock failed to see the deeper problems of his philosophy, so subsequent editions continued to promote parenting that cultivated narcissism, entitlement, and victim thinking.

Instead of stressing the importance of teaching self-denial and respect for authority, Spock emphasized accommodating children’s feelings and catering to their preferences. No longer did children learn they could endure Brussels sprouts and suffer through daily chores. Using Spock’s approach, parents began to feed self-indulgence instead of instilling self-control – homes were becoming less parent-directed and more child-centered. As parents elevated children’s “freedom of expression” and natural cravings, children became more outspoken, defiant, and demanding of gratification. In fact, they came to view gratification as a right.

One of the flaws in Spock’s approach was that he promoted conflicting goals. He wanted children to learn to follow the leadership of their parents, but he also wanted them to be outspoken and independent from a young age. His teaching was inadvertently skewed in favor of raising children to think more of themselves than others -- particularly those in authority over them.

In the 1968 New York Times interview Spock actually admitted that he hoped he had contributed to the contempt for authority demonstrated by teens in the 60’s. “I would be proud if the idealism and militancy of youth today were caused by my book," he said.

Is it any surprise that Spock participated with teenagers in protests and was arrested in 1968 because of his contempt for governmental authority? And was it any more of a surprise when he entered the 1972 presidential race as the candidate for the socialistic People’s Party? His political actions revealed the underlying philosophy of his book.

As Spock’s radical parenting ideas grew in popularity other “experts” jumped on the bandwagon and promoted their own versions of indulgent child rearing. Since 1946 parenting approaches that foster narcissism and contempt for authority have become the accepted norm in higher education and subsequently in society. It is a simple matter to trace the dominant hedonism of our culture back to Spock’s influence.