Mind - Accepting That Good Parents May Plant Bad Seeds

For years, mental health professionals were trained to see children as mere products of their environment who were intrinsically good until influenced otherwise; where there is chronic bad behavior, there must be a bad parent behind it.

But while I do not mean to let bad parents off the hook — sadly, there are all too many of them, from malignant to merely apathetic — the fact remains that perfectly decent parents can produce toxic children.

via Mind - Accepting That Good Parents May Plant Bad Seeds - NYTimes.com.