DSM IV humour

“Will a day come when the race will detect the funniness of these juvenilities and laugh at them–and by laughing at them destroy them? For your race, in its poverty, has unquestionably one really effective weapon–laughter. Power, Money, Persuasion, Supplication, Persecution–these can lift at a colossal humbug,–push it a little– crowd it a little–weaken it a little, century by century: but only Laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of Laughter nothing can stand.” - Mark Twain

Have you seen the article published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal – Canada’s leading medical journal – ‘Pathology in the Hundred Acre Wood: a neurodevelopmental perspective on A.A. Milne’ – written by Sarah-the-Shea, Ann-the-Hawkins, Janet-the-Kawchuk and Donna-the-Smith, who are with the Division of Developmental Pediatrics and Kevin-the-Gordon who’s with the Division of Neurology, Department of Pediatrics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS. First found reference to it on Autism Diva’s site. Here’s an abstract (of course, it’s tongue-in-cheek!)

“Somewhere at the top of the Hundred Acre Wood a little boy and his bear play. On the surface it is an innocent world, but on closer examination by our group of experts we find a forest where neurodevelopmental and psychosocial problems go unrecognized and untreated.”

Please read more 😉 Their recommendation for Pooh …

“Pooh needs intervention. We feel drugs are in order. We cannot but wonder how much richer Pooh’s life might be were he to have a trial of low-dose stimulant medication. With the right supports, including methylphenidate, Pooh might be fitter and more functional and perhaps produce (and remember) more poems”.