Episode 50: Why Medicine Thinks We’re Arrogant: Rational Therapeutics, Clinical Isolation, & Putting Our Field on Extinction w/ Dr. Steven Merahn, MD

<p>For decades, the applied behavior analysis sector in autism has treated the broader healthcare ecosystem like an aversive stimulus. We built a fortress out of rigid jargon, locked the gates, and convinced ourselves that clinical isolation equals purity.</p><p>Here’s the unfiltered truth: our stubborn refusal to practice basic <strong>selective accommodation</strong> and collaborate across disciplines is putting our own field on a fast track to being faded out permanently.</p><p>On this episode of <em>Rad N Bad</em>, Sean Yocum and Mike Carrero sit down with physician executive, health system leader, and author <strong>Dr. Steven Merahn, MD</strong> (<em>Care Evolution</em>) to hear what the rest of the medical world actually says about behavior analysis behind closed doors.</p><p><strong>In this episode, we unpack:</strong></p><ul><li><p><strong>Autism is Neurodevelopmental, Not Behavioral:</strong> Why treating autism strictly through a reductionist behavioral lens violates the medical principle of <strong>Rational Therapeutics</strong>.</p></li><li><p><strong>Hours Are Not Dosage:</strong> Why prescribing arbitrary 30-to-40-hour weekly clinic minimums fails pharmacokinetic principles and alienates pediatricians and health plans.</p></li><li><p><strong>Why Our Assessments Are Inherently Ableist:</strong> How comparing autistic children against normative peer curves or criterion sequences creates deficit-based traps rather than functional trajectories.</p></li><li><p><strong>The 5 Rules of Earning Professional Equity:</strong> Why behavior analysts must leave their echo chamber, attend adjacent medical conferences, read journals like <em>JAMA Pediatrics</em>, and stop denigrating allied disciplines.</p></li><li><p><strong>The &quot;Default Mode Network&quot; &amp; Inner Life:</strong> Understanding the neuroscience of attention, why joint attention doesn&#39;t require forced eye contact, and why developmental relationship-based models (DRBI) must be respected.</p></li><li><p><strong>Professional Humility:</strong> Moving past professional supremacism to recognize that ABA is a powerful tool in the healthcare toolbox—not the entire toolbox.</p><p><br></p><p>Find Dr Steve on Linkedin here: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenmerahn/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenmerahn/</a></p></li></ul>