David M. Allen, M.D.

David M. Allen, M.D. This page critiques psychiatry and psychotherapy, with an emphasis on the role of family dysfunction in mental health.

01/20/2026

In interpersonal interactions, just because one’s response is normal does not always mean that it’s also adaptive.

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01/13/2026

Psychotherapy research tends to be linear and simplified, while relationships, response patterns and development in the real world are layered and complex.

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01/07/2026

If it's true that we are here to help others, then what exactly are the others here for?

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12/18/2025

When trying to get parents to calmly discuss ongoing family issues, someone usually has to bring up examples. Parents can easily sidetrack the issue by quibbling over the reasonableness of any instance. To counter nitpicking I recommend making statements such as, "Perhaps that wasn't a perfect example, but there are many instances where this sort of thing seems to happen. I think you know what I'm talking about."

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12/08/2025

Despite what you may hear, the results of randomized controlled studies (RCT's) can at times be highly misleading (since you can’t possibly control for all relevant variables), and observational studies can be quite valid. If we were dependent entirely on RCT’s, we wouldn’t know that ci******es cause lung cancer.


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12/04/2025

12 step programs are based on Protestant techniques that are used to convert others to that religion. While there is psychology involved, it is a phenomenon that would be most appropriately studied by social psychologists, and sociologists, since it involves group dynamics. The medicalization of behavior problems has may causes, and the demands of patients for quick and easy solutions to every problem has to be counted among them.

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11/18/2025

In almost all cases, kids who kill parents are victims of severe abuse. But severe abuse alone is clearly not enough to induce a kid to do something like that, since the number of cases of severe child abuse massively exceeds the number of such killings. Most children who are abused do not even tell on their parents, let alone kill one of them. As little kids, they often think being beaten is normal, and worry more about their parents’ mental health than their own. So it has to be abuse plus something else.

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11/05/2025

In a new study, younger veterans were found to be 3 times more likely to screen positive for PTSD compared to older veterans. Mediation analysis revealed that 90% of the association between younger age and PTSD was indirectly mediated by psychosocial and trauma-specific factors. Secondary analyses identified interpersonal relationship challenges, substance use and self-blame coping strategies, and childhood physical abuse as key mediators of this association.

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Self Help book by Dr. Allen

My self-help book, Coping with Critical, Demanding, and Dysfunctional Parents: Powerful Strategies to Help Adult Children Maintain Boundaries and Stay Sane available online at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, and https://www.newharbinger.com/coping-critical-demanding-and-dysfunctional-parents