Linda Blum Analysis

The modern age has recently seen a rise in the medicalization of school-aged children across the developed world. I recently had the privilege of attending a talk conducted by an anthropologist named Linda Blum who discussed the issues of child over medicalization, especially within the United States. Moreover, the critical questions our societies are confronted with are: why is there such an exponential rise in child medicalization and what can we do about this situation?
Across elementary, primary and middle (even some high) schools more and more children are being diagnosed (I would prefer the term “labeled” as I believe Dr. Blum would also agree) as having various forms of cognitive deficits such as mild autism (severe autism is a different …show more content…
Blum’s talk and her book (Raising Generation Rx) she appears to be a strong advocate against recent neuroscientific conjectures. She explains that the proliferation of books on neuroscientific disorders (ADD, ADHD and various learning disabilities) pertaining to childhood development is instilling an illusion of fear (false neurobiological harm) amongst parents. Dr. Blum questions the validity of such scientific experiments described in books. She explains that the investigative method by which scientists are producing data on the specific childhood disorders are not solid or concrete. She describes how functional magnetic resonance imaging (fmri, which is a form of computational power) studies are really inconclusive due to lack in temporal and spatial resolutions of the machines. She also explains that many of the scientists leading the experiments use small sample sizes, which are not representative of the general population. As a result, some mothers of such children with “diagnosed” disorders are even being stigmatized and blamed for raising such children. Moreover, the educational communities mainly place blame on mothers if they do not provide diagnosis (which often comes with drug treatment) for their children, which the schools “feel” have various forms of disorders. It is interesting to note that our society mainly places the blame on mothers? After all, such parental blame is unacceptable. Rather, we need to focus on how to fix the …show more content…
Blum presents pertaining to the scientific relevance of such disorders. I agree with some of her ideas and disagree with others. For example, it is widely accepted and factually driven evidence that environmental disruptions (prenatal toxins, hormonal imbalances, childhood mistreatment or abuse) both in prenatal and early childhood can lead to various behavioral, medical or learning disorders. The new concept of epigenetics, in which genes interact and are affected by the environment, prove that there are biological underpinnings of such disorders. Furthermore, genes also interact and help to form or control the neural mechanics and functions in human beings. In extreme cases such as, psychopathy (I am not implying that such medical, learning or behavioral disorders in children have anything to do with psychopathy) we see that the interaction between an abusive early environment and if a person has the specific “warrior gene” (MAOA) can lead to a dysfunction (a dampening of the neural activity) in the person’s prefrontal cortex in the brain, which thereby limits rational control and further induces behavioral

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