Do you have an ‘emotionally immature parent’? How a nine-year-old book found a new, younger audience

In the era of ‘therapy speak,’ people are increasingly making sense of themselves through psychological language. Photograph: Jonathan Kirn/Getty Images

In an ideal world, adults would be more mature than their kids. They would be better at handling stress, resolving conflicts with others, or talking about their feelings. In the opening chapter of the book Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents, therapist Lindsay Gibson presents an unsettling alternative.

“What if,” she wrote, “some sensitive children come into the world and within a few years are more emotionally mature than their parents, who have been around for decades?”