psyche | Bantam Books
Consider the American evangelist James Dobson… His book Dare to Discipline (1970) put forth a divine vision of the iron bed, framing parental authority as a God-given rod to civilise the sinful child. For anxious parents terrified of moral failure – of raising a child who would stray from the faith or descend into waywardness – Dobson offered a seductive simplicity: disobedience met with physical consequence, the parent’s role reduced to righteous enforcement. No need to sit with uncertainty, to wonder if a child’s rebellion might signal an unmet need or a developmental phase. The rod resolved the anxiety.