Dear Reader:

I have made it my personal goal that by the tenth anniversary of the Columbine massacre (April 20, 2009) I will have begun the reversal of society's love affair with the anti-bully movement, which is ironically causing an increase in bullying while hurting the emotional development of our children. I tend to be naive, and never thought this would be so difficult to accomplish. Right after Columbine happened, I was shocked to see that society was responding in exactly the wrong direction, and I knew that trying to get rid of bullies would cause more harm than good. I began my mission to bring a better understanding of the problem to the public's attention. I thought that my common-sense approach would catch on like wildfire, but, as I said, I tend to be naive, and discovered that society was more interesting in engaging in a massive witch-hunt against bullies than in teaching people not to be victims.

Fortunately, after a decade of anti-bully efforts by society, it is becoming hard to ignore the fact that bullying has been going up rather than down, and people are more willing to listen to me now.

In the manual for my seminar on bullying, there are several sections that explain what's wrong with the anti-bully psychology and movement, but I decided to consolidate and rework these into a single document, and make it available to everyone. Many mental health professionals and educators have been sensing that the anti-bully interventions they are trying to implement are causing them frustration, but they don't understand why. It's because everyone has received a monolithic one-sided view of bullying that is repeated by every bullying expert, so they assume that the psychology underlying the anti-bully movement is solid. The truth, as I will attempt to show, is that the anti-bully psychology is little more than a compendium of psychological mistakes! Had it been based on good psychology, it would be succeeding, not failing.

People, both professionals and laypersons, deserve to know what is wrong with the anti-bully psychology. I hope that this article will make it easier to for them to abandon their failing interventions and do what makes sense and works.

I believe this is the longest article I have ever sent in a newsletter. I truly hope you will want to read it, but don't feel you need to do it in one sitting.

If you like it, please pass it on to others. Yes, there are many people on my mailing list, but if you are the only ones who read this article, the influence will be limited. So please, send it on to others.

I invite you to reproduce this article, and articles in previous newsletters, for your own publications (please cite the author and source).

For my upcoming seminar schedule, please refer to the right hand side bar.