Julia Gippenreiter: a new book about psychology for children

The name of Yulia Borisovna Gippenreiter must have been heard by every parent. Even someone who has never been interested in books on child psychology is so well-known. Yulia Borisovna is a professor at Moscow State University, specializing in family psychology, neurolinguistic programming, psychology of perception and attention. She has an incredible number of publications, more than 75 scientific papers.

Now the editorial board of Vremena (ACT) has released a new book by Yulia Gippenreiter, dedicated to child psychology, “Good and His Friends”. The book is not intended for adults, but for children. But, of course, it is better to read it with your parents. Agree, it is quite difficult to explain to a child what kindness, justice, honesty, compassion are. And in the book, the conversation will go exactly about this. Using the example of simple examples and interesting stories, the child will be able to understand, and most importantly, to feel what is at stake.

And we are publishing an excerpt from this book, designed to help the child understand what conscience is.

“Conscience is a friend and protector of Good.

As soon as someone does not kindly, this friend begins to bother the person. He has many ways to do it: sometimes he “scratches his soul”, or as if something “burns in the stomach,” and sometimes a voice repeats: “Oh, how bad it is …”, “I shouldn’t have!” – in general, it gets bad! And so on until you correct yourself, apologize, see that you have been forgiven. Then the Good will smile and begin to be friends with you again. But it doesn’t always end so well. For example, the old woman in “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish” did not improve, she swore with the old man all the time, from the beginning to the end of the tale, even ordered to beat him! And I never apologized! Apparently, her Conscience was asleep, or even died! But while the Conscience is alive, it does not allow us to do bad things, and if we do them, then we feel ashamed. As soon as the conscience speaks, it is imperative to listen to it! Necessarily!

I’ll tell you a story about a boy. His name was Mitya. The story happened a long time ago, more than a hundred years ago. The boy himself wrote about her when he became an adult and began to write books. And at that time he was four years old, and an old nanny lived in their house. The nanny was kind and affectionate. They walked together, went to church, lit candles. The nanny told him stories, knitted socks.

Once Mitya was playing with a ball, and the nanny was sitting on the sofa and knitting. The ball rolled under the sofa, and the boy shouted: “Nian, get it!” And the nanny replies: “Mitya will get it himself, he has a young, flexible back …” “No,” said Mitya stubbornly, “you get it!” The nanny strokes him on the head and repeats: “Mitenka will get it on his own, he is clever with us!” And then, imagine, this “clever girl” throws herself on the floor, pounds and kicks, roars with anger and shouts: “Get it, get it!” Mom came running, picked him up, hugged him, asks: “What, what’s wrong with you, my dear ?!” And he: “This is all the nasty nanny offends me, the ball is missing! Drive her out, drive her out! Fire! If you don’t dismiss her, then you love her, but you don’t love me! ” And now the kind, sweet nanny was fired because of the scandal that this capricious spoiled boy made!

You ask, what does the Conscience have to do with it? But at what. The writer this boy has become writes: “Fifty years have passed (imagine, fifty years!), But the remorse of Conscience returns as soon as I remember this terrible story with the ball!” Look, he remembers this story in half a century. He behaved badly, did not hear the voice of Good. And now remorse remained in his heart and tormented him.

Someone may say: but my mother felt sorry for the boy – he cried so much, and you yourself said that to regret is a Good Deed. And again, as about “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish”, we will answer: “No, it was not a Good Deed! It was impossible to give in to the whim of the child and fire the old nanny, who brought with her into the house only warmth, comfort and goodness! ” The nanny was treated very unfairly, and this is very bad!