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—BOOK REVIEW—
DYSLOGIC SYNDROME
Why Today’s Children are “Hyper,” Attention Disordered, Learning Disabled, Depressed, Aggressive,
Defiant, or Violent—And What We Can Do About It
by Bernard Rimland, Ph.D.
Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2008
Paperback, 192 pages, $16.95 (Amazon)
Dr. Bernard Rimland, who passed away in 2006, began a revolution in child psychology and psychiatry in the 1960s when he published a seminal book, Infantile Autism, which challenged the then-popular idea that autism stemmed from poor parenting. Almost single-handedly, Rimland destroyed the notion that “refrigerator mothers” caused this devastating disorder, and ushered in a new era of research into the biological roots of autism. He went on to found and serve as director of the world-renowned Autism Research Institute, which aids children with autism spectrum disorders worldwide.
In his final book, Dyslogic Syndrome, Rimland tackled another sacred cow: the idea that bad parents are to blame for troubled, disobedient, sad, or dangerous children. In this no-holds-barred book, Rimland argues that childhood behavior problems stem from dysfunctional brains reeling under biological insults including environmental toxins, poor diets, and misguided medical interventions. Using real-life stories to illustrate both the causes of dyslogic and examples of successful treatment, the book describes what parents, teachers, doctors, and members of the justice system can do to help troubled children become happy, well-adjusted, and healthy.
Dyslogic Syndrome will cause controversy, because the book is ruthless about the failure of psychosocial interventions to correct childhood behavior problems or adult criminality. In addition, Rimland is highly critical of the common approach of using drugs as a first-line treatment for dyslogical behavior rather than a last resort—a dangerous mistake, he says, because medications address symptoms of dyslogic without addressing its core causes. But while some professionals may find the book uncomfortable reading, it will be embraced by thousands of parents seeking real hope and real answers for their troubled children.
Note: The book’s title, Dyslogic Syndrome, is based on a paper of the same name written by John Wacker in 1975. An abridged version of this paper appears on pages 4-8 of this issue.
QUOTES FROM Dyslogic Syndrome
by Bernard Rimland
“For a person with [dyslogic], every day is a struggle. Just as the color-blind person sees colors wrongly, the person with a serious brain dysfunction perceives reality poorly, and makes poor decisions based on those wrong perceptions.”
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“By focusing almost exclusively on presumed psychological causes, well-intentioned counselors, doctors, teachers, and social workers ignore a vast and growing body of scientific evidence showing that the problems of difficult or dangerous people stem largely, and perhaps in many cases totally, from biological malfunctions of their brains.”
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“Our failure to understand that dyslogical brains cause dyslogical thinking and behavior has devastating consequences, because no amount of psychosocial intervention can correct the distorted thoughts of a malfunctioning brain. Insight therapy can’t save a child whose brain is too dysfunctional to have meaningful insights. Special education and behavioral therapy won’t help a child whose brain functions too poorly to follow any rules. And no amount of government funding for midnight basketball, pregnancy prevention programs, or counseling can truly aid a brain that’s malnourished, burdened by toxins, or impaired by pre- or post-natal exposure to drugs or alcohol.”
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“There are treatments available now, and additional treatments on the horizon, that have the power to effectively address nearly any form of brain dysfunction. To discover them, however, you must look beyond traditional medicine, which has relied for decades on psychoanalyzing or drugging dyslogical children, and seek real treatments that make the body, and the brain, whole and healthy.”
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“[T]he parents of these children are often nothing short of heroic. They battle ceaselessly to find help for their sons and daughters, only to find blame where they expected to find hope.... But these parents, far from being the problem themselves, are scapegoats for problems that they did not cause, and cannot cure—at least, not until a revolution in our thinking occurs.”
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