Condrell, Kenneth N. 1937- (Ken Condrell, Kenneth Condrell)

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Condrell, Kenneth N. 1937- (Ken Condrell, Kenneth Condrell)

PERSONAL:

Born 1937; married; wife's name Barbara; children: three. Education: State University of New York at Buffalo, Ph.D.; also completed graduate studies at the University of Michigan. Hobbies and other interests: Fishing, skiing, photography, and flying airplanes.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Stonegate Office Park, 8201 Main St., Ste. 2, Buffalo, NY 14221.

CAREER:

Clinical psychologist, consultant, and writer. State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo, clinical assistant professor in the department of psychiatry; founder of The Condrell Center, a group counseling practice in western New York. Has appeared on radio and television.

WRITINGS:

How to Raise a Brat, Loiry/Bonner Press (Tallahassee, FL), 1985.

(With Linda Lee Small) Wimpy Parents: From Toddler to Teen—How Not to Raise a Brat, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1998.

(With Linda Lee Small) Be a Great Divorced Dad, St. Martin's Griffin (New York, NY), 1998.

The Unhappy Child: What Every Parent Needs to Know, Prometheus Books (Amherst, NY), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals and to Fisher-Price Toys' Web site.

SIDELIGHTS:

A clinical psychologist who specializes in children and family issues, Kenneth N. Condrell has written several books focusing on his main professional interests. For example, in Wimpy Parents: From Toddler to Teen—How Not to Raise a Brat, Condrell and coauthor Linda Lee Small write about parents' rightful authority over their children. The authors describe what makes a parent "wimpy" and also discuss specific forms of troublesome behavior and manipulation of parents by children. A contributor to Adolescence noted that the book "presents strategies specifically designed to help parents reclaim their rightful authority."

In The Unhappy Child: What Every Parent Needs to Know, Condrell discusses why some children are unhappy, and strategies for helping the child to become happy. The author writes about the ten leading contributing factors to a child's unhappiness, which include divorce, lack of friends, sibling and/or parental abuse, peer rejection and cruelty, and permissive parenting. "Quotes from … children also provide real-world insights," wrote a contributor to Internet Bookwatch. The interviewed children are primarily Condrell's patients whose level of unhappiness has led them to state self-hatred or a wish to commit suicide. Vanessa Bush, writing in Booklist, called The Unhappy Child "a useful, highly accessible resource."