Hi all,
I am just sharing here some correspondance I have been involved with between two email lists after receiving the OK to quote Jordan Riak from Project NoSpank (Parents and Teachers Against Violence in Education) re ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder) / CD (Conduct Disordered) diagnostic labelling of abused kids. Hope it makes sense in this format... (it helps to know that it is predictably upside down ie. ends at the top) :
________________________________________________________________
Date:
Fri, 28 Jul 2000 07:31:47 -0700
From:
Jordan Riak <riak@nospank.org> | Block address
Organisation:
Parents and Teachers Against Violence in Education
To:
Elysha Newland <synchrony2000@yahoo.com.au>
Subject:
Re: From another list re labelling kids ODD
Elysha Newland wrote:
>
> Thanks Jordan,
> I would like to both quote your comments to the [TS]
> list and also share this on the public forum at
> Synchrony where we have been discussing DSM1V
> labelling in the context of stigma and prejudice (if
> OK with you). Keep up the great work, (Ever considered
> joining the traumatic stress list?)
> Elysha
Elysha,
Spot-on. And obvious to every honest observer. But not obvious to control-obsessed authority figures or their apologists. How does a child (or anyone in a position of relative powerlessness) respond to being bullied? Submit, and turn rage inward against the self, or resist and be labeled "oppositionally defiant"--which is merely a scientific-sounding equivalent to the less dignified "naughty," "stubborn," "disrespectful," "disobedient," "rebellious," "brat," "punk," "troublemaker," "delinquent." The list is endless. I've often wondered why the DSM IV doesn't have a criterion for adults who have a compulsion to dominate and hurt children. There's not a word for it in anybody's lexicon. And it's anything but a rare phenomenon!
Let me know if you need some copies of "Plain Talk about Spanking" for clients.
If you agree with my comments above, feel free to appropriate them the next time you get into a debate on ODD. Regards,
Jordan
Elysha Newland wrote:
>
> Hi Jordan,
> Thought you might be interested in a response I sent
> to the [TS] (traumatic stress) list re the labelling
> of abused kids as oppositionally defiant. (I see this
> as another "blame the victim;- deflect the concern
> from the real issues" phenomena)
>
> --- Elysha Newland <synchrony2000@YAHOO.COM.AU> wrote:
> > Hmmm. The DSM1V criteria for Oppositional Defiant
> > Disorder could apply to half the children I work
> > with who are suffering primarily from complex PTSD.
> > (And to more than half of the boys!).
> > Seems to me a possibly appropriate response to a
> > child's experience of a
> > chronically hostile environment. In my 27 years of
> > working with traumatized children, I have concluded
> > that children generally behave as well as they have
> > been treated, and often a good deal better.
> > Pleeease... We need to advocate against the
> > re-inclusion of ODD as a discrete "disorder" in the
> > next revision... Or better still come up with some
> > creative recycling suggestions for the DSM1V
> > Elysha
> >
> >
http://www.geocities.com/synchrony2000/
>
>
__________________________________________________________________
--
Jordan Riak, Exec. Dir.
Parents and Teachers Against Violence in Education (PTAVE)
P.O. Box 1033, Alamo, CA 94507-7033
Tel: (925) 831-1661; Fax: (925) 838-8914
Web site: "Project NoSpank" at
http://www.nospank.org