[katiekind]

You know, what I would want to point out to someone who finds it convincing that Michael Pearl always whacked himself before using the switch on a child (as described in the last paragraph of the article) is that it's NOT the individual whacks that are so dangerous to parents and children. It's the teaching that parents continue to switch and repeatedly switch until they achieve complete rulership over the child. It's the anger that rises up in parents as they start to feel that their child is bucking the regime, and the tool they have is to spank the child into submission.

I know the Pearls are big on relationship building (string-tying and all that) but while THEY may have been able to whack their children dispassionately and repeatedly from room to room as the book describes and remained emotionally cozy with their children, normal parents are probably going to experience emotional distancing and anger. Now...as Betsy points out....add in the fact that this was a foster child.