James Dobson
James C. Dobson, Ph.D., is a conservative Christian psychologist who presents a daily radio program called Focus on the Family on over 6000 stations worldwide in more than a dozen languages. He is chairman of the board of a nonprofit ogranization in Colorado Springs, CO of the same name, which he founded in 1977. His programs are heard by more than 200 million people every day, Focus on the Family is also on 80 US television stations daily.
Liberal critics label Dobson as Fundamentalist, but Fundamentalists are among its severest critics mainly because Dobson works cooperatively with Protestant and Roman Catholic Christians and Jews, and because the organization is politically active. Many Fundamentalists also decry his admixture of psychology and faith.
Degrees, Positions and Awards
Dr. Dobson has an earned doctorate in child development from the University of Southern California (1967). He was an Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Southern California School of Medicine for 14 years. He spent 17 years on the staff of the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles in the Division of Child Development and Medical Genetics.
He is a clinical member of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, a licensed psychologist in California, and is listed in Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare. He also has a long list of honorary doctorates from various institutions.
Dobson has also served at the invitation of presidents and attorneys general on government advisory panels and testified at several government hearings. Among many other awards he has been given the "Layman of the Year award by the National Association of Evangelicals in 1982, "The Children's Friend" honor by Childhelp USA, (an advocate agency against child abuse) in 1987, and the Humanitarian Award by the California Psychological Association (1988).
Authorship
Dobson has authored or coauthored 31 books, including:
- Bringing Up Boys: Practical Advice and Encouragement for Those Shaping the Next Generation of Men
- The Complete Marriage and Family Home Reference Guide
- Emotions: Can You Trust Them?
- The Focus on the Family Complete Book of Baby and Child Care, with Paul C. Reisser
- Love Must Be Tough: New Hope for Families in Crisis
- The New Dare to Discipline
- Night Light: A Devotional for Couples, with his wife Shirley Dobson
- Night Light for Parents, with Shirley Dobson
- Parenting Isn't for Cowards
- Preparing for Adolescence
- Stories of Heart and Home
- Straight Talk to Men
- Straight Talk: What Men Should Know, What Women Need to Understand
- The Strong-Willed Child : Birth Through Adolescence
- What Wives Wish Their Husbands Knew About Women
- When God Doesn't Make Sense
Views on spanking
In The Strong-Willed Child, Dobson compares child rearing with dog rearing. He describes a situation in which Sigmund, the family dog, refuses to leave his resting place, the "furry lid of the toilet seat":
- "I had seen this defiant mood before, and knew there was only one way to deal with it. The only way to make Siggie [the family dog] obey is to threaten him with destruction. Nothing else works. I turned and went to my closet and got a small belt to help me 'reason' with Mr. Freud.
- "What developed next is impossible to describe. That tiny dog and I had the most vicious fight ever staged between man and beast. I fought him up one wall and down the other, with both of us scratching and clawing and growling and swinging the belt. I am embarrassed by the memory of the entire scene. Inch by inch I moved him toward the family room and his bed. As a final desperate maneuver, Siggie backed into the corner for one last snarling stand. I eventually got him to bed, only because I outweighed him 200 to 12!
- "But this is not a book about the discipline of dogs; there is an important moral to my story that is highly relevant to the world of children. JUST AS SURELY AS A DOG WILL OCCASIONALLY CHALLENGE THE AUTHORITY OF HIS LEADERS, SO WILL A LITTLE CHILD—ONLY MORE SO." (emphasis Dobson)
Anti-spanking groups have criticized such views as highly simplistic and dangerous to children.
External links
- Focus on the Family website
- Chris Dugan: Would you trust this man alone with your dog? —Anti-Dobson commentary.