Spock on Teens

As counselor to parents in Baby and Child Care, Dr. Benjamin Spock won the devotion of a generation of child-raisers. As antiwar activist, he lost many of his mature admirers but gained hordes of young worshipers. Now, as adviser to adolescents in A Teenager's Guide to Life and Love (Simon & Schuster; $4.95), Dr. Spock advocates many of the old virtues and expresses views that he admits may be derided by the young.

In Teenager's Guide, Dr. Spock turns thumbs down on tobacco, alcohol and marijuana. He is against anything but group dating until 16 or 17 and, in most cases, anything "beyond kissing and embracing" if there is no "commitment to marriage." Dirty clothes and messy rooms are inexcusable and represent nothing more than "nose-thumbing" at parents. Daily showers and underarm deodorants are important, as are politeness and "getting chores done before your parents have to prod you."

Sex Taboo. In some of his advice, Spock veers from the traditional. He advises the boy who aches after petting because he has refrained from intercourse to "solve the problem by allowing or encouraging himself to have an orgasm." About young people who make an "arrangement" by living together, he writes: "If the idea is acceptable to them, it may be a responsible way to enter marriage."

Dr. Spock offers teen-agers his translations of Freudian theory: Why are adolescents sometimes attracted to their own sex? Because "the taboo against interest in the opposite sex, which was so intense from about six to eleven years, can't be outgrown in a hurry." Why is an early infatuation so overwhelming? Often because the loved person looks or acts like a parent who was "loved so intensely in early childhood."

Penis Envy. Although his book is addressed to teenagers, Spock digresses to take issue with the Women's Liberation Movement. He insists that woman's place is mostly at home, at least until children are seven or eight years old. He cites penis envy--a concept scorned by feminists--as a factor in the rivalry between men and women. To diminish the rivalry, he would have parents rear boys like boys and girls like girls, because "treating the two sexes alike pits them against each other."

During an interview last week, Spock was reminded that Vice President Agnew has blamed him for the permissive attitudes that have encouraged the revolutionary tendencies of youth. "I was never permissive," Spock protested laughingly. "But I would be proud if I were responsible in a small way for youth's idealism and courage." In his new book, Spock displays a courage of his own--the courage to be conventional in an unconventional age.

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