Dr. James Garbarino holds the Maude C. Clarke Chair in Humanistic Psychology and was founding Director of the Center for the Human Rights of Children at Loyola University Chicago. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and has served as an adviser to the National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse, the National Institute for Mental Health, the American Medical Association, the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, and the FBI.
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Would like the transcript of this well done conversation. Thank you!
I love the compassion and emotional intelligence demonstrated by Dr. Garbarino. He didn’t say it, but I think his theories would also effectively address world peace: when all children are well-loved and nurtured, violence of all kinds will melt away. I, too, believe that it all starts with parenting, which is why my own career is dedicated to this topic.
Great interview!
Just as you did, I noted the differences between this interview and the interview with Stanton Samenow. While I appreciate your remarks about the power of Gabarino’s compassion, I also believe that in order to truly overcome antisocial tendencies, patterns of entitlement and narcissism must be confronted. Compassion, while critical to change, must be balanced with encouraging accountability and facing injuries to others – at times actively, although delicately, promoting the emotion of shame in those that are defended against it.
While Samenow’s approach may be justifiably criticized for a deficit of compassion, it is possible that Gabarino’s approach leaves itself open to minimizing the importance of patterns of narcissism and entitlement in antisocial behaviour. Of course these patterns often also have their roots in neglect and trauma, but they also can flourish in other settings.
In closing, without compassion, change is not possible – even, maybe especially, in the case of narcissistic patterns. However compassion alone leaves itself open to the enabling of antisocial behaviour. Therapists, who are compassion experts, are very prone to this oversight, which may explain their poor success rates with this population.
Working with antisocial patterns requires unique skills in not letting entitlement patterns off the hook. Those used to working with addicts tend to be better at this side of the equation. The 12 steps with its’ emphasis on accountability and “making amends” highlights this.
Dr. Garbarino is great.
We as a society create killers by not understanding the etiology of the genesis. Maybe some are narcissistic but many are shame ridden traumatized kids.
Even the AAP is starting to get this and Dr. Garbarino will be a keynote speaker at this year’s AAP Peds 21 annual conferene in Washington, DC.
I am looking forward to hearing him speak. I am also happy that AAP leads in understanding that we do have a role in preventing these terrible outcomes in our society.
Sincerely,
Dr. Tina Marie Hahn, MD, FAAP