The following interview was conducted by The Balanced Mind Foundation Executive Director Martha Hellander:

The Balanced Mind Foundation: Dr. Greene, The Explosive Child has gained a huge following among parents of children with bipolar disorder. Have many parents in the audiences you've spoken to around the country told you their child has this diagnosis?

RG: Yes, I've found that bipolar disorder is an increasingly common diagnosis in children and adolescents who also fit the description of "explosive."

The Balanced Mind Foundation: You write that most children with what you call inflexible-explosive behavior are not the product of poor parenting, nor have they been abused nor neglected. What does cause this behavior, then?

RG: My own take on things is that these children are lacking in two critical skill areas: flexibility and frustration tolerance. A variety of factors stemming from poor self-regulation and poor emotional modulation may impair the development of these skills. Naturally, how adults respond to these children is also important.

Dr. Greene is the author of The Explosive Child, co-author ofTreating Explosive Kids: The Collaborative Problem Solving Approach, and has a new book, Lost at School: Why Our Kids with Behavioral Challenges Are Falling Through the Cracks and How We Can Help Them.              

Nanci - The Balanced Mind Foundation  
Dr. Greene, before we start taking questions, could you talk a little about your new book? In particular, the concept of Collaborative Problem Solving and Plans A, B and C? I realize that is probably broader than what can be covered in a session but it might help give our members a 'sneak peak' to the book. 

Ross Greene PhD  
Well, a lot of folks have been asking about how the model I described in The Explosive Child could be applied in schools. Kids with behavioral challenges tend to be misunderstood anyway, and school is an especially challenging place to address their needs. But I've implemented the CPS model in many schools, so I know it can be done. The book -- Lost at School -- is about how to do it. 

One reason for the limited advocacy efforts on behalf of individuals with severe psychiatric disorders in the United States is the presence of countervailing forces--a small but vocal coalition of Scientologists, antipsychiatrists, and "consumer survivors." These disparate and often interdependent groups are united by their hatred of psychiatry in general and their opposition to any form of assisted treatment in particular. Many of their members are intellectual descendents of Thomas Szasz, who taught that mental illnesses do not really exist, and Ronald Laing, who claimed that psychosis is a growth experience. These groups often attempt to intimidate individuals and organizations that provide advocacy for individuals with manic-depressive illness, schizophrenia and other severe psychiatric disorders.

by Martha Hellander

Peter Breggin, M.D., author of "Toxic Psychiatry," "Talking Back to Prozac," and the new "Talking Back to Ritalin: What Doctors Aren't Telling You about Stimulants for Children," is a spokesperson for those who believe that brain disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and ADHD were invented by the drug industry and the American Psychiatric Association to rake in profits at the expense of innocent people. I wish Breggin were right. It would be much easier to point the finger at drug companies and the APA than accept the reality of a genetic biological vulnerability in one's child that, when coupled with environmental "triggers" known and unknown, can cause a child's brain to malfunction and subject them to such fits of despair and suffering as to drive even five and six-year-olds to attempt suicide.