Call on the initiative of the first following signatories : Dr. Christine Bellas-Cabanes(pediatrist, president of the national trade union of the doctors of PMI), Dr. François Bourdillon (president of the French company of public health), Dr. Marie-Laure Cadart (doctor, anthropologist, national trade union of the doctors of PMI), Michele Clément (secretary-general of the national trade union of the psychologists), Dr. Yvonne Coinçon (pédopsychiatre, association of the psychiatrists of infanto-youthful sector), Jean-François Cottes (psychologist clinician, psychoanalyst, InterCoPsychos, Institut of Young Deaf persons of Clermont-Ferrand), Pr Boris Cyrulnik (neuropsychiatrist and ethologist), Pr Pierre Delion (head of department of pédopsychiatrie to the CHU of Lille), Daniele Delouvin (psychological, president d' A.NA.PSY.p.e. - national association of the psychologists for the early childhood), Dr. Michel Dugnat (pédopsychiatre, unit parent-babies hospital of Montfavet), Dr. Marie-Thérèse Fritz (pediatrist, national trade union of the doctors of PMI), Sylviane Giampino (psychoanalyst, psychologist early childhood, founder of A.NA.PSY.p.e.), Pr Bernard Golse (head of department of pédopsychiatrie CHU sick Necker-children, professor Université Paris V), Pr Roland Gori (psychoanalyst, professor of university), Pr Catherine Graindorge (head of department of pédopsychiatrie Foundation Valley, professor Université Paris XI), Pr Philippe Gutton (pédopsychiatre, professor of the universities), Alberto Konicheckis (lecturer in clinic psychology, University of Provence), Dr. Sophie Lemerle (hospital pediatrist, president of the French company of health of the teenager), Dr. Evelyne Lenoble (pédopsychiatre, Sainte-Anne hospital), Pr Roger Misès (highly skilled professor of psychiatry of the child and the teenager, University Paris XI), Pr Martine Myquel (president of the French company of psychiatry of the child and the teenager and the associated disciplines), Gerard Neyrand (professor of sociology University Toulouse III), Dr. Pierre Paresys (European Public Service Union of psychiatry), Danielle Rapoport (psychological clinician, association Well-treatment formation), Elisabeth Roudinesco (historian, director of research University Paris VII), Dr. Pierre Staël (president of the trade union of the French psychiatrists), Dr. Pierre Suesser (pediatrist, national trade union of the doctors of PMI).
The French government is currently developing a delinquency prevention program that entails, in particular, testing children at a very young age for “behavioural problems”, which supposedly provide the telltale signs of future delinquent conduct. In light of this plan, the recent expert report published by INSERM, the French National Health and Medical Research Institute, in which screening for “conduct disorder” is recommended at the earliest stages of childhood, takes on a particular significance.
Professionals who work with children would be requested to look for pre- and perinatal, genetic and environmental risk factors as well as those related to temperament and personality. In the case of young children, the report mentions: “character traits such as affective coldness, a tendency to manipulate, cynicism” and the notion of “(genetic) heritability for conduct disorder.” The report stresses testing children as early as 36 months for the following signs: “disobedience, aggression against others, weak emotional self-control, impulsiveness, low morality index”, etc. Does this mean that we will have to go to day care centres and track down babbling compulsive liars or toddlers who steal blocks?
A child displaying any of these symptoms would be subjected to a battery of tests. These tests, developed on the basis of behavioural neuropsychological theories, would make it possible to detect any deviation from the standard, according to the criteria established in Anglo-Saxon scientific literature. In adhering to such a deterministic approach and applying a rigid one-dimensional principle, a child’s smallest gesture or mischievousness could be interpreted as a manifestation of a pathological personality. This condition would thus necessitate immediate neutralization with a series of steps combining re-education and psychotherapy. Starting at the age of six, the administration of medication, psychostimulants and thymoregulators should succeed in controlling the most recalcitrant cases. However, if these recommendations are implemented, wouldn’t they promote the homogenisation of children’s behaviour or provoke a form of child drug addiction, not to mention overburden treatment centres responsible for curing all these sociopathies? By advocating the idea of drugs as a cure-all for educational, psychological and social phenomena, the INSERM report fosters the confusion between social inadaptability and psychic suffering, or even hereditary illnesses.
If every manifestation of opposition, inherent to a child’s psychic development, is automatically labelled as “pathological”, if symptoms are taken out of their individual contexts and considered to be predictive factors of delinquency, it makes it impossible to consider each human being’s development as being unique. Likewise, the treatment procedure would become generalized and mechanical. Rather than attempting to tame or reduce behaviour, it would be best to acknowledge certain children’s psychic suffering in relation to their nascent subjectivity and to offer them a wide variety of therapeutic options. Nevertheless, not all children fall into this category and answers to behavioural problems can often be found in the educational, instructional or social domain.
This INSERM report arrives precisely at a time when several studies have been published concerning the prevention of delinquency. They include statements that suggest in particular, testing children as young as three, whose “emotional instability (impulsiveness, inability to manage frustration, impaired language skills) (will) create this violence and fuel delinquent actions.” Under the guise of “scientific caution”, this recommendation is in fact an attempt to appropriate child psychiatry care practices in the interests of safety and public order. The risk of abuse is patent. The systematic detection of “agitated” children in day care facilities or nursery schools under the pretext of curbing their future delinquency could turn these places of welcome or education into hunting grounds in the eyes of parents. In short, it would jeopardize the social objectives of these establishments and the very concept of prevention.
As child welfare professionals, parents, citizens, in the fields of health, childcare, education etc.:
We protest against the potential abuse in treatment practices, particularly in therapy for psychic suffering, for social standardization or control purposes.
We refuse the categorical medical or psychiatric treatment of the manifestations of poor social adaptation.
We are committed to preserving the diversity of approaches in our professional and social practices (medicine, psychology, social work, education, etc.) with regards to the challenges faced by children, by acknowledging the uniqueness of each child in their personal environment.
We demand a democratic debate on prevention, protection and treatment administered to children, in which the roles and the interrelations of the various players in the social field (health, education, justice, etc.) remain transparent.
Contact : contact@pasde0deconduite.ras.eu.org
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