OPPOSITIONAL DEFIANT DISORDER
This is a label attached to a child who has nothing wrong with him.
The behaviors it addresses are perfectly normal responses to Traditional punishment/reward coercive Parenting practices.
In today's fast paced pressure-cooker culture with unrelenting media input and long hours of separation from parents, a child's normal instincts toward individuation and self-protection are intensified and manifested in problematic behaviors such as defiance and resistance to coercion of any kind.
When a "professional" pins a label on our child, telling us he has this disorder, we are off the hook. We can breathe a sigh of relief and tell ourselves, "There is something wrong with our kid."
There is nothing we can do. Drugs will fix him or expensive therapy.
When we understand the human brain's instinctive reaction to coercion we can move forward from seeing our child as Disordered and focus on building a cooperative relationship with him.
To do this, read chapters COUNTERWILL and NOT HARD WORK.
