Dr. Faye Snyder, Originator of THE CAUSAL THEORY

The Causal Theory

The Causal Theory is a progressive, if controversial, theory based upon cause and effect. It assumes that there are no genetic causes for behavior. Rather, it assumes that personality and behavior, including and especially adult behavior, result from childhood experiences beginning from birth, and perhaps even before. It includes attachment theory, lessons from trauma theory, family systems theory, and some behavioral and cognitive models. I imagine it has a splash of Zen, as well.

It’s an assumption which pays off in many ways. Of course, the easier assumption is genetics. First, Causal Theorists don't dismiss anything as inborn. We seek to understand what we see, and, consequently, we can see behavior more clearly than those who believe in genetics in partly, because everything we see is meaningful to us and healable, as well. We look at all behaviors as clues which can inform us as to what has been wonderful in a person's life and what needs to be corrected and perhaps even how to go about that task. I have actually been developing evidence to demonstrate that Causal Theorists see children and behavior more clearly than those who believe in the genetics with influences from nurture.

When you believe that personality is created not born, you take more responsibility as a parent. It’s like a chef who tastes his food as he prepares it to see how it’s developing. If a parent keeps an eye on how her child is turning out, she can adjust the child in time for greatness, ethics and love of life. So, The Causal Theory informs us how to raise a Miracle Child, how to heal a traumatized child, and how to correct our own adaptations which no longer work.

The good news is that the theory is not just practical, it is also supported by research. Recent research has both debunked previous claims that genetics caused behaviors at all and produced new research showing once again a correlation between abuse, failed attachments, neglect and repression as ingredients for personality and behavioral problems. The more extreme the childhood trauma, the more extreme the results. Research which claimed to find a gay gene, a depressed or anxious gene, an alcoholic gene or even a schizophrenic gene, have been exposed for deceptive designs and sloppy procedure. Instead, large amounts of careful research have demonstrated that attachment, trauma, and other forms of parenting correlate with identifiable symptoms and behavior, including schizophrenia.

Of course, we know that Down Syndrome is genetic. We know that fetal alcohol syndrome, although not genetic, has medical and long term consequences in the creation of the mind and body of the child. However, these are not personality and behavioral anomalies. Personality forms around interaction neurologists say. Down Syndrome and fetal alcohol syndrome are medical issues, not psychological ones. Yet, psychiatry has long been trying to medicalize mental illness to keep it under their domain. This serves a giant population of defensive parents and an economic power structure that includes pharmacology and research endeavors, probably the greatest of which was the Human Genome Project. I tend to doubt the Causal Theory, attachment theory or trauma theory will ever inspire such generous research grants.

You hit the controversy on the head. I know it sounds like we’re blaming parents for how their child turns out, and this could be really hard to hear, when you’ve done everything you knew to do and you’ve been the best parent you could be. Unfortunately, all the information isn’t out there for how to be the best possible parent. That’s why I wrote the Causal Theory of parenting and self awareness. If you know that your child is the way she is because of her history, it’s not too late to fix it. Better late than never.

Also, please keep in mind that all parents were children too. We all turn out the way we do in order to adapt brilliantly to our own childhoods. It’s just that, as wonderfully as we adapted to our families or origin, they don’t turn out to be like the world at large. We have to readjust or unlearn and relearn, which is a journey into self-awareness.

We’re not parent-bashing, although I know that parent’s can have fragile egos. I think there is more defensiveness around parenting than how we perform in bed, another real sensitive area. Nobody likes to be critiqued in bed or for their parenting. This is delicate material. However, parents who are willing to get guidance can raise the most amazing, or even more amazing children, so it’s worth swallowing our pride. The payoff is there. And what’s pride anyway but a complicated marketing problem?

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