CITE: Liedloff J. The Continuum Concept: In Search of Happiness Lost. Addison-Wesley, 1989.
Jean Liedloff’s The Continuum Concept is a book based on her experiences living among the Yequana, a tribe of South American Indians, and her observations of their parenting practices. Liedloff argues that Western society has lost touch with a natural way of living and raising children, which she calls the continuum concept. The book is divided into two parts. The first describes Liedloff’s experiences living among the Yequana, while the second part discusses how the continuum concept can be applied in Western society.
HIGHLIGHTS
- The continuum concept is based on the idea that humans have evolved to live in a certain way, and that Western society has deviated from this natural way of living.
- The Yequana practice a form of natural parenting that emphasizes physical contact, constant attention, and respect for the child’s needs and desires.
- Liedloff argues that the continuum concept can lead to happier, healthier children and adults, as well as a more harmonious society.
SELECTED QUOTES
- “The continuum concept is the idea that in order to achieve optimal physical, mental, and emotional development, human beings — especially babies — require the kind of experience to which our species adapted during the long process of our evolution.” (p. 4)
- “It is our Western habit to think that infants are not able to take part in life, that they are inconveniences to adults, and that they have no ideas or feelings worth considering until they are old enough to talk.” (p. 17)
- “The continuum mother provides her infant with the experience of the universe that it expects. The child, in turn, develops expectations of the universe that are harmonious with his experience of it” (p. 23).
- “A continuum mother carries her baby with her and provides all its needs. She is content to leave him alone when he is content, and she doesn’t push him or try to hurry his development” (p. 52).
- “When parents begin to regard their baby as a full-fledged person and recognize that he has feelings and the power to communicate them, they will almost automatically begin to see him in a different light, to take his point of view into consideration, to offer him the respect he deserves.” (p. 95)
- “As soon as we get our bearings, we are eager to control and manipulate our environment. This eagerness is programmed into us by the exigencies of our birth. We have arrived in a world that has been taken over by the adult human race, and in order to survive in it we must learn its rules” (p. 99).
- “The continuum concept is not a manual for how to raise children, but rather an invitation to try and understand what a baby needs, and how to meet those needs, by looking to what has worked for humans throughout our evolutionary history” (p. 145).
- “The continuum concept is not about going back to some idyllic, pre-civilized state of being. It is about finding a way to live that is more in line with our true nature as human beings” (p. 171).
