64 The Explosive ChildMITCHELLMitchell was dragged into yet another therapist’s office
for an initial appointment when he was a fifteen-year-old
ninth grader. The therapist met first with Mitchell’s
mother, a law professor, and father, a practicing lawyer,
and was told that Mitchell had been diagnosed with both
Tourette’s disorder and bipolar disorder but was refusing
all medication except an antihypertensive, which he was
taking to control his tics. The therapist was also told that
Mitchell was extremely unhappy about having been
brought to his office that day, for he greatly distrusted
mental health professionals. The parents reported that
Mitchell was extremely irritable (emotion regulation
pathway?), had no friends (social skills pathway?), and
became frustrated at the drop of a hat. But, aside from
pathways, a key to understanding Mitchell’s difficulties
was watching him interact with his parents.
The parents reported that Mitchell, their youngest
child (the others were already living away from home),
was extremely bright and very eccentric, but he was re-
peating the ninth grade because of a very rough time
he’d had at a local prep school the year before.
“This is a classic case of wasted potential,” said the fa-
ther. “We were devastated by what happened last year.”
“What happened?” the therapist asked.
“He just plain bombed out of prep school,” said the