Abstract
In this chapter, I address the role of leveraging in the contemporary American family system (1970s to present). Leveraging is a basic principle of human behavior and thus has always been present in family life, in the United States, and in every country. Yet we are currently living during a time period that has witnessed the rise of leveraging in the American family system in the same way we have witnessed the rise of leveraging in all aspects of American society.
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Notes
- 1.
For discussions about the diversity of family types (nuclear family, blended families, extended families, single-parent families, gay and lesbian families) in the United States and the United Kingdom see, Rapoport et al. (1977) and Taylor (1997). See Arendell (1997a, b) for a discussion of parenting issues that arise in African-American, Hispanic, Asian American, and Native American families, along with a set of other socio-economic and ethnic characteristics. On the topic of Race, Ethnicity, and Culture see the website for the Council of Contemporary Families: http://www.contemporaryfamilies.org/topics/race-ethnicity-culture/. This leading organization contains extensive resources on all aspects of families, including work and family issues.
- 2.
A leading mainstream sociological account of the emergence of the modern family is Shorter (1975). Also see Degler (1983). A feminist sociologist who also sees the modern nuclear family as a product of industrial capitalism is Cancian (1987). A Marxist who takes a broadly similar view is Zaretsky (1976). For a critical discussion of these accounts of the rise of the modern family, see MacFarlane (1987). MacFarlane draws on a number of critics of the received view, who maintain that romantic love between partners in a marriage and the nuclear family model were widespread in certain periods prior to the rise of industrial capitalism.
- 3.
See, for example, Rubin (1983). The highly influential “ethics of care” developed by Gilligan (1982) represented a feminine counterpart to the male voice of the “ethics of justice” associated with the moral psychology of Lawrence Kohlberg, which focuses on norms about autonomy, rights, and impartiality. Also see Osherson (1986), which focuses on understanding fathers.
- 4.
Psychodynamic therapists, especially working in the object relations tradition, frequently employ theories of projection, projective identification, and triangulation to explain how parents project their problems onto the child. See, e.g., Dicks (1967), Bowen (1978), Scharff and Scharff (1987), and Luepnitz (2002). Also see Scarf (1987).
- 5.
An example of cognitive therapy is Beck (1989). We have already employed concepts from a psychoanalytic point of view, one that draws on object relations rather than drive reduction psychoanalytic theory and which has been shaped by feminist moral concepts, namely Luepnitz (2002). Luepnitz actually critiques eight different theories of family therapy along with developing her own version of feminist object relations family therapy. She indicates that her work is heavily influenced by Chodorow (1999).
- 6.
McDowell, “The Struggle in the Family Life,” Charities (December 3, 1904), pp. 196–197 as quoted in Stanley Feldstein and Lawrence Costello, eds., The Ordeal of Assimilation (New York: Anchor Books, 1974), p. 361: Taken from: Elizabeth H. Pleck, “Challenges to Traditional Authority in Immigrant Families,” in Gordon (1983), p. 513.
- 7.
I am a Commissioner on the Montgomery County (Maryland) Commission on Children and Youth. I sit on the Social Media Literacy Committee, which has been studying Social Media Literacy since September, 2013. The Superintendent of the Montgomery County School System, Dr. Joshua Starr, is a strong proponent of Social and Emotional Learning. He has held one of his monthly book club meetings on Paul Tough’s book, How Children Succeed on January 9, 2013: http://rockville.patch.com/groups/schools/p/superintendent-starr-to-host-school-year-s-first-book-club In response to some student online misconduct in the fall of 2013, Dr. Starr is in the process of creating a Cybercivility Task Force.
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Anderson, D.M. (2014). Leveraging in Modern and Contemporary Families. In: Anderson, D. (eds) Leveraging. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06094-1_10
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