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Liverpool (pte046/01.12.2004/15:15) - Believing in Santa Claus helps children to be good, according to a British child psychiatrist. As the Zambian Independent Online http://www.iol.co.za reports, adults who encourage children to believe in Father Christmas are helping to foster their moral development. Writing in this month's Psychiatric Bulletin, psychiatrist Lynda Breen said that Santa Claus, and his ability to "know if you've been bad or good", helps children to learn the difference between right and wrong. According to the psychiatrist, the Santa myth gives parents "an ace up their sleeve."
The child psychiatrist from Alder Hey Children's hospital in the northern English city of Liverpool decided to do some research into how beneficial it is for children to believe in Santa Claus after seeing her nephews grow up. "Teaching children about Santa is a useful ace up a parent's sleeve as it encourages their moral development as they believe he knows which children are good or bad," explained Breen. According to Breen, children eventually outgrow the belief in Santa Claus, a time that is often tougher on the parents than the children themselves. "Most of the evidence suggests that children are actually quite positive when they find out the truth and it is actually the parents who mourn the loss", she added.
Writing in the same publication, consultant psychiatrist Mark Salter said the significance of myths and legends such as Father Christmas are being put at risk by the emphasis of rationality in modern society. "The imagination which created Father Christmas is being destroyed by a society which holds rationality above anything else," Salter said. According to the consultant psychiatrist from London's Homerton Hospital, whenever anything goes wrong nowadays, an inquiry is held into it. "We no longer seem to accept that bad things may happen in our lives", he added. "If Santa died, we would hold a serious incident inquiry and if we had any sense, we should ask the Tooth Fairy to chair it."
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