## Metadata - Author: [[Gordon Neufeld, Gabor Mate]] - Full Title: Hold on to Your Kids - Category: #books ## Highlights - The existence of a youth culture, separate and distinct from that of adults, dates back only fifty years or so. Although half a century is a relatively short time in the history of humankind, in the life of an individual person it constitutes a whole era. Most readers of this book will already have been raised in a society where the transmission of culture is horizontal rather than vertical. In each new generation this process, potentially corrosive to civilized society, gains new power and velocity. ([Location 278](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001LOEFZU&location=278)) - According to a large international study headed by the British child psychiatrist Sir Michael Rutter and criminologist David Smith, a children’s culture first emerged after the Second World War and is one of the most dramatic and ominous social phenomena of the twentieth century.2 This study, which included leading scholars from sixteen countries, linked the escalation of antisocial behavior to the breakdown of the vertical transmission of mainstream culture. ([Location 282](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001LOEFZU&location=282)) - In its most concrete and physical form, orienting involves locating oneself in space and time. When we have difficulty doing this, we become anxious. If on waking we are not sure where we are or whether we are still dreaming, locating ourselves in space and time gets top priority. If we get lost while on a hike, we will not pause to admire the flora and fauna, or to assess our life goals, or even to think about supper. Getting our bearings will command all of our attention and consume most of our energy. ([Location 420](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001LOEFZU&location=420)) - Orienting voids, situations where we find nothing or no one to orient by, are absolutely intolerable to the human brain. Even adults who are relatively self-orienting can feel a bit lost when not in contact with the person in their lives who functions as their working compass point. ([Location 431](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B001LOEFZU&location=431))