changing language of evaluations

Post Reply New Topic

I wonder how to go about asking the powers that be to change some of the language or terminology in psychological evaluations.

I'm talking about the term, "denies". It denotes someone isn't being truthful about something. For example, in my psych evaluation, it reads, "Michael denies a history of alcohol abuse".

If I were in court and the evaluation was read by a lay man, they would think that I was lying about my alcohol usage and question whatever I said from that point on.

anyone seeing my point?

---------------
Deny, v.t. (Webster)
1. To contradict; to gainsay; to declare a statement or position not to be true.
-----
Gainsay, v.t. [Eng. against.]
To contradict; to oppose in words; to deny or declare not to be true what another says; to controvert; to dispute; applied to persons, or to propositions, declarations or facts.
---------------

I think denial of something is also a lie only if/when one knows the actual truth of the matter. The first time someone told me I was alcoholic and should go to A.A., I had never yet even had a drink. Therefore, my "denial" at that time stemmed from simple ignorance of actual fact I had yet to observe or experience: "The alcoholic at certain times has no effective mental defense against the first drink." ("Alcoholics Anonymous", the book, page 43)

The second time someone told me I was alcoholic and should go to A.A. was several years later and immediately after I had asked why I could not stop drinking and what I should do about that. No denial took place that day!

right but I wasn't lying about not abusing alcohol because I hate the stuff. I don't drink.

Understood, and yes, I definitely see your point. As I understand "deny", you have not denied anything. Rather, you have only made a statement that happens to contradict an assumption.

I once had a similar problem when a series of questions about drinking were asked in such a way as to not distinguish my past from the present. I reported "Have you ever ...?" things like missing work and whatever, then said I do not drink at all ... and the nut asked by my employer to do the evaluation would not talk with me at all after that! I had told him from the beginning that I am one of the most-permanently-recovered alcoholics he might ever meet, but he had ignored that in favor of what he needs to believe in order to feel secure in his line of "work"!