With softening birth rates, it appears that Great Britain's child psychologists are in need of a larger base of potential customers in order to make a living. They don't come right out and say so. Instead, they can now treat "adolescents" up to 25 years of age. The ostensible justification for this is cognitive studies showing that the brain is still developing past age 18 and into the 20's. There is also a question of hormonal development continuing as well. No doubt this is true. It is also true that forcing young people out into the world regardless of their cognitive and hormonal growth has been going on for thousands of years and the species hasn't suffered much. When you consider that on the savannah, African tribes have ritualized the passage into adulthood with lion hunts for boys and fertility rites for girls - both coming at age 14-15 - going out into the world at age 18 is a cakewalk by comparison. But won't this create a population of infantile young peope? BBC: ...(Read Full Post)