Kids' predilection for junkiedom was directly correlated with their address, poverty, and the presence in their community of really addictive and feloniously illegal drugs. Psychiatric diagnosis, and its refusal to seriously engage the social concomitants of individual behavior, is too often a way to confine people into a prison of categories and not an instrument for their liberation. N.H. It is the evolution of our society that needs the psychiatric fix, not the individual child. Our society is driven by money and violence. The acquisition of money supersedes moral standards.
Violence is our entertainment.
Certainly, growing up in this atmosphere, many kids never find a clear, guiding light. Fla. Scientists will not understand violent behavior in young people until they first understand that the human capacity for remorseless aggression derives from our ability to selectively suppress caring impulses such as compassion, helping, and sharing and be exclusively motivated by self-centeredness without regard for others. The failure of the childhood environment to engender a strong sense of security creates the need for the feeling of self-importance. Bullying and starting fires are symptomatic of the need for self-importance through power. Their need for security can be intense.