Jan Dale presents here the viewpoint that humankind is on the threshold of still another step forward in parenting, religion and global safety due to the breakthrough that scientific psychology has brought to the world in this past century. He demonstrates in a warm and funny way how family life can produce happy and emotionally healthy children. He says healthy families produce good people who no longer fit the notion of humankind as depraved and evil. He postulates that our definitions of God throughout history have paralleled our parenting styles and that more positive parenting can result in new more positive definitions of God. Such positive definitions of God can help reduce religious conflict in the world. He goes on to show that healthier, happier people and more positive views of God can better humankind's chances for survival in the world political arena. He presents here a delightful, humorous and touching portrayal of how good life can be in all its stages. In this book he gives you skills that you can use in your growing family. Dr. Jan Dale has spent his career helping mentally unhealthy people be able to cope and realize some happiness, and he has spent his career helping normal people become happier and more fulfilled. This book is about the latter, namely how normal people can be happy and fulfilled throughout their entire lives. This is a heartwarming story that gives a feeling of great possibilities ahead for humankind.
About the Author: Jan Dale is a retired psychologist. He was raised on a farm in Iowa. In college, his junior year he served as Vice-President of the Simpson College student body in Indianola, Iowa, and studied political science at American University in Washington D.C. his senior year. The focus in Washington D.C. was international relations. He earned his Ph.D. from Boston University in 1971. While working on his Ph.D., he spent one year in clinical training at the Harvard Teaching Hospital for psychiatrists, Massachusetts Mental Health Center. He completed his Ph.D. at Boston University in 1971, and took the position of Chief Psychologist for the Central Iowa Mental Health Center in Ames, Iowa. His Ph.D. had emphasized prevention as well as treatment, and this job allowed him to work half time in prevention and half time in treatment. Dr. Dale received awards from the Guidance Counselors Association of Central Iowa for "Outstanding Contributions to Youth," and from the Community Mental Health Association of Iowa for "For His Work as a Therapist, Consultant, and Educator". Jan followed a History and Political Science major at Simpson College in Iowa with a minister's degree at Boston University School of Theology and a master's equivalent in the core clinical psychology program at Boston University graduating in 1966. Boston University was the seminary that Martin Luther King Jr. attended eight years earlier. Dr. Dale worked for five years as a minister of a United Congregational Church, and a United Methodist Church during seminary and in early stages of his Ph.D. studies.