Good posting Tim. Thank you.
I am not a psychiatrist, nor a psychologist, nor a sociologist, and I do not aspire to any of these fields of endeavour. Yet I have opinions concerning this issue and they are based on personal observations and on anecdotal reports from friends, not on clinical studies. I have some years of experience as a child, somewhat less as an adult. My personal experience is thus: if I ever saw my father naked I have no memory of it; I know that I saw my mother naked but that was a very long time ago. I was raised in a household, my aunt's, where casual nudity was a simple a matter of fact. Naturist norms were the norms of the house, and of most of the regular visitors to that house. I don't seem to have suffered from it.
The real question in the continued use of Freud's and Spock's writings is why society clings to these erroneous perceptions of reality. In my humble opinion Dr Freud was a dirty old man who projected his own warped views concerning sexuality on everyone he studied. Many of his opinions are now widely discredited. For reasons probably unknown to himself Dr Spock accepted Freud's views concerning sexuality and nudity, and expounded them in his widely popular books. In my humble opinion the perpetration of Dr Spock's ideas has severely damaged generations of children, particularly in North America where his baleful influence was the strongest.
The continued adherence to many of Dr Spock's opinions exists because they are self-validating for those raised according to his ideas. In this regard Dr Spock's bad ideas have become self-fulfilling prophecy. Those who are raised in shame believe that shame is the normal and desirable state of affairs. It is no surprise that people would wish to perpetuate what they perceive to be normal. They don't wish to alter their perceptions because that would require the very difficult and painful admission that they are wrong, their parents were wrong and the related opinions of their social support network are wrong. This position is fostered by most organized religions which want to maintain their monopoly on dictating morality despite their own fall from grace. Politicians take their cues from these and other sources and parrot what they believe the moral majority want to hear. Thus we exist within the state of "shame-normal."
The state of "shame-normal" is seriously damaging to society at large. It fosters secrecy in sexuality which, perversely but inevitably, promotes the pornography and commercial sex industries. These industries, by their very existence, validate the "shame-normal" view that nudity and sexuality are shameful and inspire societal suppression of non-sexual nudity. In fact they inspire the view that non-sexual nudity is a logical contradiction and exacerbate prejudices against private nudity, let alone social naturism. They also support organized crime.
The state of "shame-normal" allows, indeed requires, people to hide their bodies. Hidden bodies allow negative perceptions to proliferate and foster dangerous habits concerning nutrition and fitness. This in turn contributes to the plague of obesity and its attendant diseases, a problem particularly evident in North America where the right to be grossly obese is nearly constitutional in its acceptance.
I could go on but there is no point.
Thank you Drs Freud and Spock, two shameful people who have done so much harm yet are extolled by many.