Being locked out is torture for young children. Is it still a good parenting practice?
Image: dpa
A strict parenting style is popular with young fathers and mothers, although studies show the disadvantages for the child. Behind this is often fear – and one’s own history.
In talk shows and panel discussions, the child and adolescent psychiatrist Michael Winterhoff was a welcome guest for a long time: He sat with Anne Will, chatted with Markus Lanz and gave Sandra Maischberger advice on how parents should raise their children. His thesis went something like this: Nowadays, parents are no longer able to set limits for their children – as a result, they grow into manipulative narcissists. “Why our children are becoming tyrants” or “Germany is dumbing down” were the titles of his popular non-fiction books, which sold more than 1.4 million copies.
Criminal charges are now being filed against the psychiatrist from Bonn. In May 2022, according to media reports, the police on behalf of the Bonn public prosecutor searched his practice rooms and child and youth welfare facilities with which Winterhoff had worked. Serious allegations were made as early as summer 2021: He is accused of having prescribed sedative medication to minors for years, sometimes without the consent of the legal guardians. He often diagnosed children with a so-called “developmental retardation with fixation in early childhood narcissism and in the oedipal phase” or a “parent-child symbiosis”. Both diagnoses do not appear in the ICD, the international classification system that doctors use to encode and bill illnesses.
