Co-author, Professor Peter Fonagy (UCL Psychology & Language Sciences), said: “This systematic review is timely and of significant clinical value. Preventing the maltreatment of children is the most effective way we can reduce the prevalence of child mental health problems. A sharp focus on childhood verbal abuse by adults around them by the new charity Words Matter, and this review will help make significant change, and support and direct our efforts to identify and respond to this risk in an effective and timely manner.”
This is right up my alley in that it concerns the use of language in interpersonal relations. In the abstract, it would be very good to reduce the ‘verbal abuse’ of children and no one would object to that abstract ideal. I am concerned, though, that this will end up being yet another excuse, bloated with government grants and payola, to intrude on the the private lives of children and families. A better plan, in my view, would be to teach the Words Matter people FIML and then get them to figure out a way to teach everyone in the world how to do FIML. Note that Prof Fonagy is on the advisory board of Words Matter, and also that childhood mental health has done nothing but decline the more governments and charities interfere in children’s upbringing. Their list of Trustees reads like a front for a psyop with boondoggle side-benefits. Their Find Help page takes you straight to more charities and groups with well-paid executives. This looks like just another leg on the giant parasitic organism feeding on Western societies. In today’s world, skepticism is justified. I am strongly in favor of the excellent use of language in every environment but am wary of anyone who uses language to intrude, control, self-aggrandize, or solve problems that people of that type have only made worse. ‘Hate speech’, ‘gender-affirming care’, ‘equality of outcome’, ‘Black Lives Matter’, and now ‘Words Matter’. It’s all of a piece and nothing good has come from any of it. ABN
UPDATE: I hope readers of this site understand that only FIML or a practice very much like it will fix the extremely serious problems all people face whenever they use language. And that includes self-talking as well as interpersonal speech with children and others. No one should expect a charity or government policy to improve interpersonal language based on theoretical and often ideological psychological assumptions, most of which have little or no grounding in reality. To optimize your use of language to the fullest, only you can do it with the help of an honest partner through FIML practice. There is no other way. Children can and should be taught FIML in the home. It will provide them with a beautiful intellectual and spiritual tool that will enrich their lives in every activity. ABN
American Buddhist Net 