Word: strecker
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Mothers' Sons. What was the matter with them? General Cooke hazards no guess; but Psychiatrist Edward A. Strecker, an expert who helped in the medical phase of General Marshall's inquiry, does. In most cases, says he, it was Mother. In a companion book to General Cooke's (Their Mothers' Sons; Lippincott; $2.75), Dr. Strecker argues that "smother love" was the root of the psychoneurotics' trouble...
...Strecker considers it significant that when Bing Crosby toured the South Pacific, the song which troops demanded most often was Brahms's Lullaby. Plaintive, demanding letters from mothers to their sons in the service, he thinks, did much to undermine the boys' morale...
...Momism," of both the clinging and domineering varieties, is a widespread, "hereditary" U.S. disease, says Dr. Strecker, for which the nation is paying in general immaturity. "Instead of censuring mom for her shortcomings, we encourage her with misplaced adoration...
...Strecker's prescription: let parents help children grow up by careful nourishment of traits that lead to maturity: "1) a desire to move, 2) a readiness and willingness to imitate, 3 ) an alert response to suggestion, 4) a reasonable amount of the love of power, 5) a strong leavening of curiosity, 6) a dash of childhood savagery, and 7) a spark of romancing...
...Other members: Major General Norman Kirk, the Army's Surgeon General, Dr. Alan C. Woods of Johns Hopkins, Dr. Frank H. Lahey of Boston's Lahey Clinic, Dr. Edward A. Strecker of the University of Pennsylvania...