This groundbreaking book argues that adolescence is an unnecessary period of life that people are better off without. Robert Epstein, former editor-in-chief of Psychology Today, shows that teen turmoil is caused by outmoded systems put into place a century ago which destroyed the continuum between childhood and adulthood. Where this continuum still exists in other countries, there is no adolescence. Isolated from adults, American teens learn everything they know from their media-dominated peers—“the last people on earth they should be learning from,” says Epstein. Epstein explains that our teens are highly capable—in some ways more capable than adults—and argues strongly against “infantilizing” young people. We must rediscover “the adult in every teen,” he says, by giving young people adult authority and responsibility as soon as they can demonstrate readiness. This landmark book will change the thinking about teens for decades to come.

Robert Epstein, Ph. D. is the former Editor in Chief of Psychology Today magazine, a contributing editor for Scientific American Mind, and the host of "Psyched!" on Sirius Satellite Radio. While conducting the research described in this book, he served as University Research Professor at the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University. He is currently a Visiting Scholar at the University of California San Diego. In addition, Dr. Epstein is the founder and Director Emeritus of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies in Massachusetts. A Ph.D. of Harvard University, he has published more than 100 articles and 11 books.

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