Raising patients instead of children

Psychology once claimed a disciplined neutrality. It trained practitioners to observe human behavior without rushing to moral judgment, to distinguish distress from disease, and to separate their own beliefs from the lives of the people who came to them for help. Psychologist Luanna Devenis (PhD) entered the field when those distinctions still mattered.

Trained as a counseling psychologist, Devenis’ focus was not psychosis or institutional care but relationships, development, work, family, and the ordinary conflicts that shape adult life. “Counseling psychologists tend to have more training in dealing with so-called normal populations, not people who are hospitalized or psychotic, but people in universities, colleges, and everyday settings.”

Her profession has changed markedly: “It has become much more politicized. Most of the people working in the field are very left leaning, and people who … trained in the scientific method are no longer objective.”

Entire lines of inquiry have been closed off: “As a psychologist, you are not allowed to criticize transgender ideology or question any of this ‘LGBTQ…RST+’ framework.” What was once an exploratory discipline now enforces conclusions in advance, in abandonment of professional responsibility.

Her approach to therapy reflects an older model. “If somebody came into my office screaming about how much 666 strict(sic) this isthey hated Trump, I would try to help them understand where that is coming from.” The goal was not agreement but insight. “I would look at whether they had authority issues, issues with their father, or problems with male figures, rather than joining them in hatred.”

That same analytic restraint, she argues, is missing in how children are now treated. Parents increasingly seek to fix children rather than examine families. Very young children are brought to therapy, and when talk fails, medication follows. “Young children are diagnosed and medicated with amphetamine drugs like Ritalin or Adderall.”

Attention deficit diagnoses illustrate the problem. Devenis does not deny variation in temperament or ability. She questions the framing. “Children with attention deficit do not lack the ability to focus. They focus on what they like.” What they often lack is structure. “There is chaos in many families now. There are no rituals, no shared meals, no consistent rules.

“The job of a parent is to help a child become self-sufficient and self-reliant.” Instead, she sees overprotection and emotional reactivity. “Parents are very afraid of imagined disasters. Children are not allowed to walk to school, play freely, or take risks.” Activities are organized, supervised, and controlled, leaving little room for autonomy.

Adolescence, she notes, has always been a period of confusion and identity testing. What is new is how quickly ‘uncertainty’ is medicalized. “Adolescence is a time when people question who they are, who they are attracted to, and what they want to do with their lives.” In the past, that confusion was allowed to resolve with time. Now it is treated as an emergency.

When families seek irreversible interventions, Devenis urges restraint. “We do not want to jump to conclusions. We need to understand what is going on with the family and what this means for the child.” Therapy, in her view, should slow things down, not accelerate decisions that permanently alter bodies and futures.

She also traces these trends to changes in parenting patterns. “People wait to have children until their mid-thirties or later. They have careers, they put kids in daycare from infancy, and they are not spending much time with their children.” The children who emerge from this arrangement are often anxious, depressed, and unsure of themselves. Identity confusion follows neglect as much as ideology.

Devenis does not argue for nostalgia or perfection. Families have always struggled. She argues for seriousness about development. “Parents need to take time to listen to their kids.” That listening requires presence rather than programming. “If you give children time and opportunity, they will talk to you.”

Psychology once understood that its role was not to impose meaning but to uncover it. Luanna Devenis speaks for a discipline that once trusted patience, inquiry, and restraint. Whether the profession can recover those habits remains an open question.

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