Of individual responsibility, personhood, moral dignity, and the mental health professions

George Will's latest Washington Post column really struck a chord with Colleen and me. He writes about the profession of psychiatry and the new edition of the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), which Will describes as "psychiatry's encyclopedia of supposed mental "disorders."

Will, typically using his incredible vocabulary which always includes at least one word I need to look up, points out several problems with the DSM. One is that children are increasingly being diagnosed with some ailment requiring treatment with powerful drugs, when behavioral modification treatment can mitigate the problem. Another danger is that "childhood eccentricities, sometimes inextricable from creativity, might be labeled "disorders" to be "cured." (Think about Mozart, Temple Grandin). Furthermore, Will writes that "a society that thinks scientific determinism renders personal responsibility a chimera must consider it absurd not only to condemn depravity but also to praise nobility."

Colleen and I, being a psychologist and social worker, are often asked if our training has given us lots of advantages in knowledge and ideas that we can use as parents. Are you kidding me? Almost every effective parenting action we have employed has been in direct opposition to what we were taught in our mental health professions! I agree with George Will that "today's therapeutic ethos" ... "absolves the individual of responsibility, personhood, and moral dignity."