David M. Allen, M.D.

08/04/2026

The younger children in a single school class will be, on average, considerably less mature than the older ones. In turn, this means that the average attention span and ability to sit still is likely to be considerably lower in the younger group. In one study, roughly 8.4 percent of children born in the month prior to their state’s cutoff date for kindergarten eligibility – who typically become the youngest and most developmentally immature children within a grade – were diagnosed with ADHD, compared to 5.1 percent of children born in the month immediately afterward.

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07/28/2026

https://davidmallenmd.blogspot.com/2026/07/ambiguity-in-family-conversatioms.html

How intrapsychic conflicts and unacknowledged ambivalence play out in a family's interactions

Send Medicine and Arms by A1Cafel , by t he Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic This post will continue on from my po...

07/21/2026

The dramatic increase in diagnosis of ADHD (without any change in the gene pool) is more strong evidence for the main thesis of my book, "How Dysfunctional Families Spur Mental Disorders." An unspoken and unholy alliance between pharmaceutical companies, biological psychiatrists, and overwhelmed and guilty parents has led to the disappearance in many mental health circles of the use of the term "acting out" in children in favor of a brain disease model for out-of-control children.

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07/14/2026

To disarm someone with Borderline Personality Disorder, try to find something that is wise, correct, or of value in the emotions, thinking, and behavior of the BPD person. You should never assume that the BPD’s problems stem primarily from crazy thinking, faulty interpretations, distortions of reality, or maladaptive assumptions. You should assume that individuals with BPD have unhappy lives and therefore, despite all evidence and appearances to the contrary, they really want down deep to act better.

07/07/2026

When a person with borderline personality says something outrageous to you, resist the invitation to invalidate them without agreeing to all the exaggerated histrionics or without agreeing that you are some kind of schmuck. No matter how awful or crazy-sounding what they say is, there is always a kernel of truth in it. The countermeasure is therefore to validate the kernel of truth in the statement and simply ignore all the exaggeration and the negative implications.

06/30/2026

http://davidmallenmd.blogspot.com/2026/06/movies-about-borderline-personality.html

Marsha Linehan, a leading name in the treatment of borderline personality disorder, writes that sometimes they exhibit “apparent competency” in some social skill. One wonders how someone can do something they lack the ability to do. Maybe it’s the incompetency that’s only apparent. Much easier to fake.

A few years ago I did a blog post (July 22 2013) about movies that purport to be about someone with borderline personality disorder, and ...

06/23/2026

Why is it so damn difficult for family members to stop engaging in repetitive behavior with one another that is clearly driving them all nuts? This situation is all the more complicated because all these events, mixed signals, thinking about the motives of the other person in the relationship, etc. go on simultaneously between any two or more partners.

06/17/2026

A lot of the difficult behavior of patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) in their intimate relationships is designed to elicit in the observer one of three reactions: anxious helplessness, anxious guilt, and overt hostility.

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06/09/2026

06/02/2026

http://davidmallenmd.blogspot.com/2026/06/self-actualization-and-why-it-may-be-so.html

What makes opposing your family's wishes so hard.

Walking Reflection jpg by Tomascastelazo, creative commons attribution share alike 4.0 This post will continue on from my posts (3/24, 3/1...