Chapter 1

Prologue I am fully aware that it seems melodramatic and precious to write an introduction that is basically a giant trigger warning – but it needs to be done. This book is the culmination of forty years work in the field of philosophy, self-knowledge, parenting and ethics. Through my show Freedomain, I have had the privilege of having in-depth conversations with thousands of people about their early childhood experiences, and the effects that trauma has had over the course of their adult lives. They contact me in the hope that my training and experience in self-knowledge and moral philosophy will help them untangle the problems in their lives – I hope that I have served him well. These conversations are all available on my website. I have interviewed many experts in the field of parenting, child abuse, family structures, therapy and self-knowledge – these interviews are also available on my website. I myself experienced significant levels of child abuse. I was raised by a violent and crazy single mother, who ended up being institutionalized when I was in my early teens. I did talk therapy for three hours a week, for almost 2 years. At the end of my therapeutic process, and after months of trying to repair my relationship with my family, I decided to separate from them. I have not talked to my mother for twenty-five years. My father left when I was a baby, and I have had little contact with him since – he died a few years ago. I have been happily married for over twenty years, and have been a stay-at-home father for the past fifteen years to my wonderful daughter. My wife is a licensed mental health professional who practices psychology. Her training is in early childhood education, and we both decided to parent without aggression, violence, name-calling, raised voices – or punishment of any kind. My daughter is homeschooled, and we are part of a wonderful community of like-minded parents. My daughter and I do comedy shows together - mostly movie reviews - these are also available on my website. Now for the trigger warning. This is a very intense book. I have tried to write it twice before, but faltered at the depth and enormity of the task. My experience as a child was a deep and genuine bewilderment. I was surrounded by people who claimed to be good – many of them Christians – and who also claimed to be experts at identifying and punishing immorality. My relatives, my teachers, my boarding school masters, the priests who instructed me – they all claimed to have the ability to accurately identify immorality and take strong steps to contain and punish it. I was punished in school – caned in boarding school – and in church, and by relatives – all because they said that I had behaved badly, and deserved to be punished. But it was most strange… None of the hundreds of adults who judged and punished me over the course of my young life ever recognized that my mother was an evildoer who violently beat her own children. They were able to detect subtle signs of rebellion or disobedience in my demeanour, and sharply or aggressively punish me – but they were utterly unable to identify my mother’s obvious mental and moral dysfunctions – or ask me how I was doing, and take action to protect me, and oppose the violence I was subjected to. I have been wrestling with this massive issue for over half a century. How is it possible that adults can punish children for minor transgressions – I was once caned for climbing over a fence to go and get a soccer ball – but are utterly blind and helpless in the face of adult abusers of helpless, dependent and innocent children?