Boundaries of touch : parenting and adult-child intimacy / Jean O'Malley Halley.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Halley, Jean O'Malley, 1967-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Touch--Psychological aspects.

Touch.

Boundaries--Psychological aspects.

Boundaries.

Parent and child.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (221 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, c2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Discussing issues of parent-child contact ranging from breastfeeding and sleeping arrangements to sexual abuse, Jean O'Malley Halley traces the evolution of mainstream ideas about touching between adults and children over the course of the twentieth century in the United States. Boundaries of Touch shows how arguments about adult-child touch have been politicized, simplified, and bifurcated into "naturalist" and "behaviorist" viewpoints, thereby sharpening certain binary constructions such as mind/body and male/female. In addition to contemporary periodicals and self-help books on child rearing, Halley uses information gathered from interviews she conducted with mothers ranging in age from twenty-eight to seventy-three. Throughout, she reveals how the parent-child relationship, far from being a private or benign subject, continues as a highly contested, politicized affair of keen public interest.

Contents:

To touch or not to touch

The rise of the expert, the fall of the mother

Breasts versus bottles and the sexual mother

Babies in bed : to sleep or not to sleep (with your baby)

Violent touch : feminists, conservatives, and child sexual abuse

Touching problems.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [187]-194) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-283-04400-5

9786613044006

0-252-09145-0

OCLC:

811409123