American Disorder

This article in Forbes discusses why the rate of medically diagnosed ADHD in American school children is 18 times as high as that of French school children:

G. K. Chesterton wrote, “Science in the modern world has many uses; its chief use, however, is to provide long words to cover the errors of the rich.” A rich man cannot be a thief. He must be a kleptomaniac. America, the richest society in the history of the world, applies this use of science with diligence.

We apply it most diligently on behalf of our children. No red-blooded American child would misbehave. Our children have disorders.

The real question is not “Why don’t French kids have ADHD?” The real question is “Why do American kids have it?” After all, we’re the ones who are abnormal.

We really don’t have an ADHD epidemic in this country. Our brains are not less healthy than the French. Instead, we have an epidemic of parents looking for a scientific excuse for their own disappointment in their children, and we have a glut of lazy doctors willing to prescribe whatever drugs parents request.

Essentially, the French treat these behavioral problems within a social rather a medicinal context. They use behavior modifiers, rather than tampering with the chemistry of young brains which are not even fully formed. I realize this opinion marks me as a brutalistic and anachronistic dinosaur in modern America, but the most effective psychological tool in modifying child behavior remains Daddy's Belt. No amount of legislation or medical journal articles can change that fact. That this is an uncomfortable fact for parents who wish to be their child's friend is irrelevant; only results matter. To date, the results of medicating children with psychotropics are not favorable.

It is worth noting (again) that the most profitable industry in the United States, and the one with the largest lobby in Washington, is the pharmaceutical industry. One cannot effectively sell a new drug if there are no "disorders" to treat, now can one? Do you really believe it is a coincidence that behaviorism and Skinnerian psychological philosophy have fallen out of favor in America at precisely the same time that Big Pharma is pumping out a new psych drug every few months?

In January of 1987 I reported to Marine Corps boot camp. At "turnover" (the point at which you leave Receiving Barracks and are assigned to a recruit platoon), the drill instructors all introduce themselves. They are all very nice -- which is the last time you will think that about them for the next three months -- and they finish up the little get-to-know-you chat with an address from the Senior Drill Instructor. Mine was Staff Sergeant Bork, a Scout/Sniper by MOS. As any Marine will attest, you may forget what your grandmother looked and sounded like, but you will remember to your last day every detail of your drill instructors' faces and the exact tenor of their voices. Of more relevance to this topic, however, I remember what Staff Sergeant Bork told us just before he Unleashed Hell. I can still recall it twenty-six years later: "More than anything else, what defines a Marine is discipline. Everything starts with that trait. I cannot give you discipline, nor can my drill instructors give it to you. We cannot make you a Marine. Only you can do that, because the only true discipline is self-discipline. We are here to impose structure upon you until such a time as you learn self-discipline. If you fail to learn it, you will fail to become a Marine."

I contend that no drug, however efficacious, can create self-discipline. They are, in fact, antithetical to its germination.