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News Item appeared in Providence Journal-Bulletin
Summer (1971)
THE PROBLEMS OF THE CREATIVE
Take your child out of school if he is suffering New York psy-
chologist Stanley Krippner told Rhode Island parents of a creative
child during a meeting Saturday night when they complained that his
school refused to recognize his creativity
"It is worth the legal hassle if the child is suffering", he said,
explaining that children learn from many, many sources. In fact, he
predicted, in the future, children will be out in the community more
and even away from home for extended periods of time as they learn.
A research specialist for Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn,
Dr. Krippner was in this state to present a preliminary report on test-
ing he has done Kith Rhode Island children who are on doctor-prescribed
drugs.
The children tested had been analyzed by the schools as hyper-
kinetic, as suffering brain damage or as dyslexic, he said. Doctors
had given them drugs without, in most cases, any surgical or neurol-
ogical examination.
Tests were conducted with the help of the National Foundation for
Gifted and Creative Children in Warwick. For comparative purposes, iden-
tical tests were given to children for whom no drugs had been recom-
mended.
Costs of the testing were borne by Mr. and Mrs. Jack Friedel, who
organized the foundation which has its headquarters and a workshop for
children in their home on Diamond Hill Road, and the parents of the chil-
dren being tested.
The purpose, said Dr. Krippner "was to determine whether all of
the children taking drugs because of a diagnosis of hyperkinesis are in-
deed brain damaged."
A secondary purpose was to explore the parameter of intelligence
creativity and mental health of the children involved. Reporting on 50
children, about half of the number tested, Dr. Krippner's findings were
that every child for whom drugs were prescribed did have problems, but
only half gave any evidence of neurological damage. The others had
personality problems related to a modest intelligence
A few tested very high on figurative creativity which indicates,
said the psychologist, that their schools are not putting enough empha-
sis on music, science or art.
Brain damage is rare, said Dr. Krippner, and only a few specialists
in the country are qualified to diagnose dyslexia, "a term which has no
business in the public schools where it often becomes a label that cru-
elly and necessarily ostracizes a child", he said. There are 22 dif-
ferent definitions of dyslexia, added the psychologist, giving his own
as "a reading disability caused by a neurological malfunction."
Speaking before a group of 50 parents in the Town Hall at Midland
Mall, Dr. Krippner criticized drug manufacturers and medical doctors.
Manufacturers are making too much money on the sale of amphetamines to
be willing to police themselves. He charged."We manufacture twice as
many amphetamines as are sold in drug stores. The other half is sold
on the black market, many of them to rich kids who have nothing better
to do than get high."
As for the doctors, he said. "It is so easy to write out a pre-
scription for these drugs and get a $20 fee. When this much money is in-
volved, it is hard to make sound judgements."
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There is a strong tendency to expect gifted and creative chil-
dren to excel in schools, the psychologist explained, and some do, but
not all such children are gifted academically and many are difficult to
handle in the classroom where they are bored or their creative tendencies
are stifled.
Such children are not infrequently diagnosed as mentally retarded.
when really they are highly creative in music, mechanics, art or science.
Dr. Krippner believes many of the world's creative scientists think in
mental images rather than in words. "It is a shame to tell creative
people that the only way that they cen be creative is in reading and
writing."
Dr. Krippner suggested three things to try with creative children
before even considering a drug treatment. The first is more innovative
teaching. The second is perceptual motor training which would help a
child integrate what he sees with what is on the page.
Nutrition is a third possibility for help. High protein diets with
lots of B2, B6, B12, D and E vitamins do seem to be helpful for many
children. The Russians, who will not admit that their social environ-
ment causes mental distress, have looked at the body for reasons of men-
tal illness, said Dr. Krippner. And the Russians have been doing some
very productive work with schizophrenics by placing them first on a 30-
day fast and then on a very limited diet.
To parents who want to fight for the rights of gifted and creative
children, Dr. Krippner suggested they broaden their views and emphasize
the damage being done to all children, not just to a relatively few gift-
ed and creative children. Fot parents to be effective in bringing change,
or in righting wrongs, they must be well organized and a real political
threat at the polls.
Bert Wade
********k*******
Dr. Krippner's courage to speak out was not well received by the pro-
fessionals in Rhode Island. Instead of being rewarded for his wanting
to assist the children who cannot help themselves, he was punished.
In Dr. Stanley Krippner's Presidential Address. Association for Human-
istic Psychology, 1974 -- IS PSYCHOLOGY PART OF THE PROBLEM? -- he
makes reference to the study he and his associates did with Rhode
Island children:
THE OPPRESSION OF CHILDREN
Political militants are fond of saying, "If you're not
a part of a solution, you're part of the problem." As
one surveys the oppression of social groups in the U.S.,
one cannot help but ask, "Is psychology part of the pro-
blem?" Certainly no group throughout history has been
more oppressed than children. Indeed, the further back
in history one digs, the more archaic the mode of parent-
ing, and the more likely children were to be routinely
abandoned, killed, beaten, sexually molested, and emo-
tionally or physically starved (Demause. 1973). Child
development specialists of the nineteenth century in-
vented any number of devices which inflicted pain on
children if their posture slumped, or which pierced the
skin if they sucked their thumb.
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One example of contemporary child abuse by psychologists and other
professionals is the use of psychoactive drugs for children diagnosed
as "hyperkenetic" These youngsters number in the hundreds of thousands
and are given drugs to reduce their activity level so that they are less
disruptive at home and in the classroom.
Three of my students and I investigated several dozen children who
had been labeled "hyperkenetic" and found very few who showed signs of
"minimal brain damage" on psychological tests (Krippner, Silverman,
Cavallo, and Healy, 1973). It is true that the boys and girls we tested
were disruptive in the classroom; however, our observations indicated
that they had emotional problems or manifested different learning styles.
from those that the school was prepared to handle. Thus, the child's
reaction to a poor school environment was misdiagnosed while the school
system was left untouched. In the meantime, as a result of out study,
I have been personally attacked by a number of psychologists in the state
where we investigated the so-called hyperkenetic children, and that
state's psychological association has warned me that legal action will
be taken against me if I initiate any further investigations in that
part of the country.
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