I think I'm hate-reading this, and I'm not planning to go to the parenting book club that discusses this book because I don't want to alienate folks and sound like a jackass. I'm immediately skeptical of anything that has "human nature!" claims, because there's no such thing. There's also a hefty dose of noble savages, and that old well-meaning racist exotification. If I'm to read a parenting book, I want it to be backed up with real data rather than extrapolations and romanticization of the other.

> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Liedloff-Le-concept-du-continuum--A-la-recherche-...

I loved this when I read it in the 1990s and I found it very compelling. Looking back, I'm more skeptical from a decolonization POV. But hey, luckily I never had any babies and none of this was put to the test in my life. ( )

A book with the power to change the world. ( )

Hmm. This book is hideously unscientific. Most of its claims are complete conjecture, based on the author's interpretation of her time with the Yequana people of Venezuela, and some of them are real doozies.

That said, I'd still recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in psychology, sociology, parenting, or oh, I don't know, the attainment of happiness. She makes a very compelling case that our societal "wisdom" about how children should be dealt with from infancy is completely skewed, runs counter to our actual instincts, and leads to a state where "happiness ceases to be a normal condition of being alive, and becomes a goal." She claims that this deviation from the natural processes of our species (the "Continuum"), beginning with our failure to keep our newborns constantly "in arms", not as the center of attention, but as an observer learning how the life of adults works, drives us ever further from it, and perpetuates our constant drives to fill the holes in ourselves with money, power, love, drugs, etc. Or, as in this comic, sand: http://dresdencodak.com/images/stall10.jpg .

I think she's spot on, and my entire view of modern society has been forever altered.

TL;DR: Most of this book is silliness. But the main point - we raise our kids wrong, and it makes us an unhappy striving society, is incredibly powerful. So read it anyway. ( )