MJA
MJA

Let children cry

Jon N Jureidini
Med J Aust 2014; 201 (10): . || doi: 10.5694/mja14.00060
Published online: 17 November 2014

Better to be good at feelings than to feel good

Our society is intolerant and disrespectful of young people's distress. We seem to dislike it when young people are angry, ashamed, frightened, sad or disappointed. There is strong encouragement to consider such distress as being a precursor of disease,1 so that parents, doctors and teachers are prone to label and intervene rather than sit with ordinary, healthy, but distressing feelings.

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