The Psychic or Over-Sensitive Child (1970)

Phoebe d. Bendit
Parents Theosophical Research Group

Before the golden age of pharmaceuticals, one good strategy for dealing with "high-strung" children was to imagine that they were overly "sensitive"-- as in "psychic."  For some two hundred years now, various experts have been on hand to suggest that, while Mary or Johnny may seem to be emotionally unstable and/or ceaselessly "acting out" for adult attention, they are in fact hearing ghosts or seeing visions of the future.  Once a parent realizes that his or her daughter really does see fairies everywhere she goes (as depicted on the cover), the entire family will be one step closer to greater understanding and harmony.

Author Bendit runs through the usual pseudo-physiology here--children have more "open" nerve centers, thus making them more susceptible to paranormal influence.  This is why some kids simply can not give up the "nite lite," even into their teenage years. They "are not so much afraid of the dark as of half-lights and shadowy corners in which they are always on the verge of seeing something truly alarming."

You might be thinking--if I had known my parents believed in this stuff,  I would have played the "sensitive" angle for all it's worth.  Bendit is aware of this problem:

A great difficulty for parents and teachers trying to cope with these children is to learn to discriminate between ordinary misbehavior and behavior arising from some form of genuine extrasensory perception.

Indeed!

Those who suspect they might have overly-sensitive children can read the entire document here:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/77709542/The-Psychic-or-Over-Sensitive-Child-1970

Also, a TV version of such hijinx can be found on A&E's Psychic Kids: Children of Paranormal, wherein whiny, crybaby children get to be on cable because they convinced parents and producers that they see dead monks in the basement or that a ghostly women in a veil follows them home from school everyday.

My thanks to Max Dawson for rescuing this pamphlet from the scrapheap of esoteric kindling.