Study Guide for "The Crisis"

The following includes a very broad set of questions to help you understand your assigned reading. You are responsible for material in the article that these questions may not directly address. That is, to do well on the quiz you must read the entire article at least once if not more than once. On the day of the quiz, you will have a five question multiple choice quiz in class. Study hard and enjoy understanding why some families may be in a crisis!

 

What determines our core beliefs about ourselves?

 

What are the differences between shame and guilt?

 

Describe the ways in which our present parenting rules create children with shame based personalities.

 

 

 

Why do children create a false self--what is a false self?

 

What does Bradshaw mean when he argues that the crisis of today is "the crisis of adult children raising children who will become adult children?

 

Bradshaw argues that if we do not question the rules under which we were raised we will end up raising our children in the same way. Why is this a problem for Bradshaw?

 

 

Define addiction and list ways in which we defend our ego. According to Bradshaw, what is the fastest growing problem in our country?

 

 

Describe and summarize "poisonous pedagogy."

 

 

What is wrong with the belief that "obedience makes a child strong" or "parents are always right?"

 

How does the protective deification of the parents create a potential for a shame-binding predicament for the child?

 

According to Bradshaw, when does a person become emotionally mature?

 

 

Explain the processes of "splitting off," "introjecting our parents voices," and the internalization of shame (Shame is no longer a feeling; it is an identity).

 

 

Why do children and adults become bonded to abusers?

 

Why did the poisonous pedagogy work in the past and why is it no longer viable?

 

 

What do obedience and corporal punishment have to do with Hitler?

 

According to the article, what function did the Jews serve in the functioning of the German physic?

 

What does Bradshaw mean when he argues that to live and never know who I really am is the greatest tragedy of all?

 

Is Bradshaw's work consistent with the last article you read on the family system--why or why not?

 

 

According to Bradshaw, what must people to do to live a truly full life and to have children that have a true sense of who they are?