The Children’s Hour is a “must-read” according to Dr. Robson’s colleagues in the field of child psychiatry. They are delighted by the book’s combination of compassion, insight, poetry, and candor. They find its emphasis on nonchemical therapy to be a necessary antidote to the more mechanistic, biological approaches currently in vogue. And they note that the book is equally important to professionals and the general public. No one can read this engaging, witty, devastatingly honest, and wonderfully wise memoir without feeling its direct relevance to the sorrows, dangers, and triumphs we have all experienced as children and continue to experience in the lives of the young in our immediate and extended families. Whoever we are, wherever we have been, this book cuts deeply into our common humanity. (113 pp.)

Reviews

“This eloquent book illuminates the art of engaging children in psychotherapy with beautifully written vignettes from the author’s practice. Dr. Robson writes with the language of a pet. With his keen observations and appreciation of the metaphoric language of children, he engages the reader in dramas encountered during his career. His humility, compassion, respect for children, and love of his calling weave together the fabric of his book.”

–Diane H. Schetky MD
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, University of Vermont College of Medicine

“In a series of vignettes drawn from the span of his career, Dr. Robson observes with the keenest eye, assesses with nimble intelligence, and intervenes with strategic creativity. There are lessons here for the professional and amateur alike. This book is truly for aficionados of mind, relationship, and the human story. In this wonderful work, Dr. Robson establishes himself as the poet laureate of child psychiatry.”

–Harold I. Schwartz MD
Psychiatrist-in-Chief, The Institute of Living

“To read Ken Robson’s Children’s Hour is to spend quality time with one of child psychiatry’s most gifted practitioners. He is as clever a wordsmith as has ever taken up the cause for children’s emotional health. His puckish humor and the vital imagery of his story-telling entertain and instruct.”

–Kyle Pruett MD
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry & Nursing, Yale School of Medicine

–Marsha Kline Pruett PhD
School for Social Work, Smith College

“Who does a child psychiatrist treat? How does a child psychiatrist do it? What works, what doesn’t? And what is the psychiatrist’s life like? This wonderful book meets the reader’s curiosity with a compassionate account of what the doctor and the patient experience–together and apart. Ken Robson is a great story-teller and a great child psychiatrist. The combination is irresistible. Some books give you information, other books give you inspiration. This book gives you both.”

–Lenore Terr MD
author of Magical Moments of Change