Angry Young Men: How Parents, Teachers, and Counselors Can Help Bad Boys Become Good Men

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 304 pages
• Published by: Jossey-Bass
• Edition: 1st Edition March 28, 2002
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0787960438
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0787960438
• Book Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Weighs: 14.9 ounces

From Library Journal
The author's own history is a litany of physical abuse, parental neglect, abandonment, foster homes, homelessness, drug use, and juvenile incarcerations. With determination and, importantly, help, young Kipnis managed a lifestyle change: He earned a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and is now on the faculty of Pacifica Graduate Institute. He has since worked to instill his belief that a culture that learns to understand and address the requirements of young males, especially those of social, racial, or economic minorities, is financially, practically, humanely wiser than one that locks them up or puts them down when their frustration erupts in disruptive social and/or criminal actions, as his did. Kipnis persuasively contends that parenting and job-skills training programs, counseling, community services, and affordable quality education is infinitely more effective in encouraging constructive behavior for them and their progeny than America's increasingly popular punitive response. Highly recommended for academics, professionals, and the general public.ASuzanne W. Wood, SUNY Coll. of Technology, Alfred
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Review
“…presented several ideas worthy of consideration…” (Youth & Policy, No. 83)

Reader Reviews
This review is from: Angry Young Men: How Parents, Teachers, and Counselors Can Help Bad Boys Become Good Men (Hardcover) This book is a moving interweaving of autobiographical anecdotes, patiently accumulated facts (did you know that more is spent in the US on prisons than on college educations? See malepsych.com for more such data), and concrete suggestions for understanding our national epidemic of angry youth and doing something constructive about it. Don't let the impotence of current national solutions and quick-fixes ("just say no"; "bring your child to work day"; etc. ad nauseum) convince you that the problem of angry young men is insoluble. It's not. In fact, the suggestions offered by the author throughout the book are relevant, doable, sensible, and verifiable. Grouping the outside forces that make for violence into six Pathways to Prison, Dr. Kipnis goes on to explain what they look and feel like from inside the young rager--and it is that part we sorely lack in our sorry stabs at "explaining" youth violence from the outside, its perpetrators objects to be warehoused for a profit as slave labor. Most of the violent males I've counseled have already done jail or prison time--and yet even with them, listening carefully, confronting them firmly and respectfully with the consequences of their behavior, educating them about basics like managing addictions and painful emotions, and showing them that strong males can be gentle, patient, and nonviolently assertive gave our counseling center (Cornerstone) close to a 90% success rate (meaning: 90% men who completed the full program never reviolated their probation). I wish I'd had this book available then, for them and for me. So much more can be done with young men before they ever get to this point! Dr. Kipnis is President of the Fatherhood Coalition, a nonprofit that among other things encourages fathers to be an active, available part of their childrens' lives. I can tell you that of the hundreds of violent men I've worked with, not one--not one!--had had an adequate, let alone loving, relationship with his father. Given our country of unavailable dads (and moms, of course), do you begin to see why more young men are imprisoned in the US than were locked up in pro-aparteid Africa? This and other dynamics behind the immense problem of young male violence are explained in this book with clarity, erudition, and personal experiences convincing far beyond the usual theoretical models. The Talmud talks about the "Master of Return," the man who took the wrong way and then found the right way; in the eyes of God such a man stands higher than even the angels in heaven. One such man has penned this book, as you'll see for yourself when you read it. If you spend any time at all around young males, or if you simply want to understand what's going on in their world, then this resource is indispensable.