Dyslogic Syndrome: Why Millions of Kids are 'Hyper', Attention-Disordered, Learning Disabled, Depressed, Aggressive, Defiant, or Violent--and What We Can Do About It

196 Pages·2008·3.16 MB·English

by  Bernard Rimland

Dyslogic Syndrome
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Dyslogic Syndrome
Why Millions of Kids are “Hyper,”
Attention-Disordered, Learning Disabled,
Depressed, Aggressive, Defiant,
or Violent – and What We Can Do About It
Bernard Rimland
Jessica Kingsley Publishers
London and Philadelphia
Firstpublishedin2008
byJessicaKingsleyPublishers
116PentonvilleRoad
LondonN19JB,UK
and
400MarketStreet,Suite400
Philadelphia,PA19106,USA
www.jkp.com
Copyright©TheWackerFoundation2008
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LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Rimland,Bernard,1928-2006.
Dyslogicsyndrome:whymillionsofkidsare“hyper,”attention-disordered,learning
disabled,depressed,aggressive,defiant,orviolent-andwhatwecandoaboutit/Bernard
Rimland.
p.cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN-13:978-1-84310-877-1(alk.paper) 1. Behaviordisordersin
children--Environmentalaspects.2. Behaviordisordersinchildren--Nutritionalaspects.3.
Behaviordisordersinchildren--Physiologicalaspects.4. Neurotoxicology.5. Behavioral
toxicology. I.Title.
RJ506.B44R562008
618.92'89--dc22
2007019946
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
ACIPcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
ISBN9781843108771
ISBNpdfeBook9781846427329
PrintedandboundinGreatBritainby
AthenaeumPress,Gateshead,TyneandWear
Contents
Introduction 7
Part I: The Dyslogic Epidemic 13
Chapter 1: Overview: What is “Dyslogic?” 15
Chapter 2: The Dyslogic Epidemic’s Victims: America’s “Mad,”
“Bad,” and “Dumbed Down” Children 27
Chapter 3: Why “Nurture” Fixes Can’t Cure Dyslogic 43
Chapter 4: Why Drugs Don’t Cure Dyslogic 59
Part II: The Dyslogic Culprits 73
Chapter 5: Dietary Dyslogic: Why What Your Kids Eat (or
Don’t Eat) Can Make Them Crazy, Sad, or Violent 75
Chapter 6: The Contaminated Brain: How our Toxic
Environment Affects our Children’s Thinking 101
Chapter 7: Medically Caused Dyslogic: When Drugs and Other
Medical Treatments Damage the Brain 117
Chapter 8: Why NO Dyslogical Child is “Hopeless” 143
Chapter 9: An Action Plan for Ending Dyslogic 161
SUBJECTINDEX 183
AUTHORINDEX 191

Introduction
This is a book about “lost children.” It’s about children who fail at
schoolandatlife.It’saboutchildrenwhocommitcrimes,andchildren
who react to loving families with hostility or violence. It’s about
hyperactivekids,andchildrenbattlingdepressionorbipolardisorder.
Butthefirst“lostchildren”Istudiedweren’tcriminals,orkidsfailing
math, or depressed children, or children who climbed the walls or
yelled obscenities at their moms.
Theywerechildrenevenworseoff—theywereautistic.Trappedin
a world of their own, they cried, screamed, rocked, and hit. Many
shrankfromhugs,andlashedoutiftheirparentstriedtotouchthem.
And one of them was mine.
This was back in the 1950s. I was a young psychologist, well
schooledinexperimentalpsychology,statistics,andthemeasurement
ofindividualdifferences.Mytraining,however,didmenogoodwhen
Mark, my first child, arrived.
Markdidn’tjustcry.Hescreamedasifinrage,hourafterhour,so
violentlythathecouldhardlynurse.Hehatedbeingheld.Ashegrew,
hebeganrockingandbanginghisheadagainsthiscrib.Hestaredinto
space for hours, and looked through, rather than at, everyone,
including his mother and me, as though we were invisible. His first
words, spoken at only eight months of age, were “spoon,” “bear,” “all
done,”and“comeon,let’splayball.”Afewmonthslater,hebeganto
repeatnurseryrhymes,radiocommercialsandquestions,allspokenin
an expressionless voice as if by a robot.
Wehadnoideawhatwaswrong.Ourpediatrician,whohadbeen
inpracticefor35years,wasbaffledaswell.Hehadneverseenorheard
ofsuchachild.WhenMarkwastwo,however,mywifeputanameto
7
8 DYSLOGICSYNDROME
his condition. She remembered having seen a description, in an old
college textbook stored in a box in our garage, of autistic
children—children who acted just like Mark. In that textbook I saw
theword“autism”forthefirsttime—fiveyearsafterearningaPh.D.in
psychology.
ButputtinganametoMark’sproblemdidn’tsolveit.Neitherdid
thechillingwordsinthebooksaboutautismthatItrackeddownatthe
library. Autism, all the books said, stemmed from damage done by
cold, unfeeling parents who irreparably scarred their children’s
psyches.Motherswerethemajorculprits.Thetextbooks’authors,led
by then-revered psychologist Bruno Bettelheim, uniformly blamed
“refrigeratormothers,”who,thepsychiatristsweresure,weresubcon-
sciously rejecting their children. Bettelheim likened the mothers to
guards in Nazi concentration camps, dedicated to oppressing those
under their control.1 Other authors varied the theme by blaming
“smothermothers,”who,thepsychiatristscharged,refusedtolettheir
children be themselves.
The medical authorities writing these books were cruel and
unsparing. I knew that, at least in our case, they were wrong. It was
impossibletopicturemyloving,intelligentwifeasanevildestroyerof
children. And Mark’s uncontrolled tantrums were apparent in the
maternity ward, on the day he was born. How could a happy, loving
new mother, ecstatic over the arrival of her child, subconsciously
“smother” or “freeze” a newborn?
My questions initiated a personal and professional odyssey
spanningnearlyfivedecades.Itbeganwithmyintensivesearchofthe
scientificliterature,whichledtotheconclusionthatautismwasabio-
logical disorder, rather than an emotional illness caused by bad
mothering. My research formed the basis for my 1964 book Infantile
Autism:TheSyndromeandItsImplicationsforaNeuralTheoryof Behavior,
which is credited with destroying the psychoanalytical myths about
autism.2In1979,just15yearslater,DavidKatzwrotethatarevolution
had taken place: “Ninety percent of the people in the field agree that
Rimland’s book blew Bettelheim’s theory to hell.”3
Asmyresearchintotherootsofautismprogressed,andexpanded
intootherareas,suchasschizophrenia,depression,andpsychopathy,it