Dr. Stanley Goldstein - Author and Psychologist

The popular concept of Neurodiversity is as fallacious as that of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder which symptoms reflect the anxiety and depression that are present in nearly all medical and psychological concerns. The basis for considering various social symptoms as Neurodiverse rather than psychological is the disfavor which many have for considering their children to possess mental health difficulties. One mother said she would prefer her child to have a brain tumor since this could be cut out!

The notion of neurodiversity tends to be affixed to the common symptoms of autism and Asperger's Disorder, which are among the most socially debilitating of all psychological disorders. The social limitations of these youth derive from their lack of awareness of and experience with such basic human characteristics as trust, sharing and gaining warmth from others, and love. To heal these deficiencies the appropriate psychotherapeutic and social experiences must be provided.

Far greater improvement can be expected when these critical limitations are considered psychological and the result of inadequate childhood parenting experiences rather than neurological and fixed.

This item was inspired by a Wall Street Journal Article ("Bill Gates: I Coded While I Hiked as a teenager. Was I on the Spectrum? Probably"/Jan. 24, 2025). There are fashions in labeling mental health disorders. A clinician confided that in his West Coast psychiatric hospital it was now forbidden to describe patients as "crazy," that the term "insane" must be used instead, and another that in his Washington DC hospital "crazy" was the preferred nomenclature with "insane" being forbidden. Similarly, the term "mentally retarded" has become abolished though without a favored accepted replacement. Or perhaps today all must be regarded as possessing genius lest feelings be hurt though both cognitive and physical abilities have long been known to follow the a bell curve, which is nature's way of saying that most people are about average.

During the newspaper interview, Gates was reported to have said that were he born today his obsessive interest in coding would be described as "neurodivergent," which has become the present term for children who were once termed "strange" or "weird." Even autism is now depicted as merely "neurodivergent," implying normality, though it is perhaps the most disabling of all mental health conditions, and often misdiagnosed.

Knowledge of child psychological development and developmental psychopathology (a term coined by my doctoral advisor decades ago) is minimal among both doctors and the general public.