In article <3d64408d.177492917 at news.erols.com>, Ian Goddard
<igoddard at erols.mom> writes
>> IAN: Well, I can't say that I've met Harold Koplewicz,
> but he's a leading proponent of bio-psychiatry and I'd
> say he speaks for psychiatry's new paradigm. He said
> this at the White House Conference on Mental Health:
>> "It's hard to believe that until 20 years ago we still
> believed that inadequate parenting and bad childhood
> traumas were the cause of psychiatric illnesses in
> children. And in fact, even though we know better today,
> that antiquated way of thinking is still out there, so
> that people who wouldn't dream of blaming parents for
> other types of disease, like their child's diabetes or
> asthma, still embrace the notion that somehow absent
> fathers, working mothers, over-permissive parents are
> the cause of psychiatric illness in children. ... the
> only way we can change that is through more public
> awareness. I mean, essentially, these are no-fault
> brain disorders.
>These diseases are physiological, they
> respond to medicine."
Well, of course there is some truth in that last sentence, although it would
be more accurate to say they *sometimes* respond to medicine.
I'm not completely convinced that he is actually saying environmental
causes are irrelevant, the quote seems to have more to do with the
important public-relations work of reducing stigma and blame, and it's
not clear from the above exactly which disorders he's talking about. But I
do take your point- if he's not actually saying that environment is
irrelevant, he's certainly *close* to saying it.
I still find it hard to imagine that an otherwise intelligent (one assumes)
person can think that physiology and environment have no interaction, but
perhaps it is so. I'm pleased to say that I have not come across this kind
of extreme position in UK psychiatry though.
--
Nick Medford
