In the 1960s Eric Berne's writing on strokes—which related strokes to their apparent biological underpinnings and such phenomena as failure to thrive, depression, and related conditions—captured the imagination of both the professional and lay public. However, today one rarely hears such slogans as “Stroke the pit” or “If you don't get enough strokes, your spinal cord will shrivel up.” This article reexamines these ideas about strokes, taking into account the literature on “failure to thrive” and “negative stroking in early life.”
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