According to Wikipedia, disinformation is a subset of propaganda and is defined as false information that is spread deliberately to deceive people. Misinformation is false information but is not deliberate. Neither is honest. Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I think honesty is important, especially given the popularity of fake news, false narratives, alternative facts, and spin these days. The thing about false narratives is that when they’re not challenged people come to think they’re true.
There’s one false narrative in particular that I’d like to call to your attention. For quite some time now, I’ve seen my former trainee, Stuart Ablon, referred to as the co-originator of the “Collaborative Problem Solving” approach. While I’ve seen this before in advertisements for Ablon’s presentations, it was recently called to my attention that this error appears in Dr. Bruce Perry’s book, The Boy Who Was Raised As a Dog. (Perry eventually agreed to remove this error from the book.)
The problem, of course, is that Ablon is not the co-originator of the “Collaborative Problem Solving” approach. Ablon had nothing to do with originating the model, which I originated and first described in published form in 1998 in my book, The Explosive Child, and in trainings well before that. Thus, despite my aversion to blowing my own horn, the need for me to set things straight.
Why the confusion? The advertisements for Ablon’s presentations have certainly furthered the falsehood. It might also be due to the fact that while I originally called my model “Collaborative Problem Solving” — and referred to my work by that name in my books and scientific papers until 2013 – I was forced to change the name because of legal action taken by Massachusetts General Hospital, home of the Think:Kids program now directed by Ablon. In 2008, MGH demanded that I relinquish my intellectual property to the hospital; when I refused, MGH took legal action to prohibit me from referring to my model as “Collaborative Problem Solving.” (This, despite having “allowed” me to use the name “Collaborative Problem Solving” without issue for many years.) Not very collaborative, I know.
It’s also possible that my graciously listing Ablon as co-author on the book Treating Explosive Kids contributed to the fallacy. That book was published seven years after I published The Explosive Child, and, by his own admission, Ablon actually contributed minimally to Treating Explosive Kids.
The Think:Kids website also sows confusion. It says that the Collaborative Problem Solving approach was developed at Massachusetts General Hospital. Very clever choice of words, since “developed” can have several meanings, none of which apply here. “Developed” can mean “to bring into being,” but neither Ablon nor MGH brought the Collaborative Problem Solving approach into being. “Developed” can also mean “to bring to a more advanced or effective state.” While Ablon has certainly made changes to the model, I’m not aware of any research suggesting that he’s brought it to a more advanced or effective state.
But it gets even better. Ablon’s book Changeable: How Collaborative Problem Solving Changes Lives at Home, at School, and at Work was picked by Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, Dan Pink and Susan Cain for their Next Big Idea Club. Ablon may be the only author whose “next big idea” was actually someone else’s idea first. And shame on Gladwell, Grant, Pink, and Cain for not doing their research.
More recently, podcaster Mel Robbins wittingly or unwittingly perpetuated the duplicity. Ablon was her guest and as is typical, he made no mention of the originator of the model he was describing, including the phrase “Kids do well if they can” — causing a bit of a firestorm in social media, with those who know better calling him out. He also exhibited what he once described to me as his special talent (and something I witnessed on several occasions), crying at will. I’ve received dozens of emails from people who are disappointed in and outraged at Robbins for hosting Ablon and at Ablon for continuing to do his thing. And Robbins was recently called out for stealing someone else’s ideas for her book The Let Them Theory. Birds of a feather?
This might be a good time to provide a refresher on the definition of plagiarism:
The practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own
— Oxford Languages
Does Ablon believe that because he was listed as co-author on Treating Explosive Kids he has no obligation to make the appropriate attribution to the originator of the CPS model? Does he truly believe that there was no CPS model before he was listed as a co-author on the book Treating Explosive Kids? Does he think it’s OK to give people the misimpression that the work he’s describing is his own? This isn’t an issue of copyright law…plagiarism is an ethical issue. And this isn’t about money; it’s about honesty and integrity.
In the parlance of the CPS model, we seem to have a few unsolved problems. For Ablon, the wording would be as follows: “I’ve noticed you’re having difficulty acknowledging — on the Think:Kids website, in your books, in your interview with Mel Robbins, and on your TEDx talk — that Ross Greene originated the CPS model…what’s up?” For Massachusetts General Hospital, the wording would be, “I’ve noticed you’re having difficulty explaining how it came to pass that you’re disseminating Ross Greene’s work without Ross Greene…what’s up?”
I posed the first unsolved problem to ChatGPT. Here’s how it responded:
While Stuart Ablon has certainly been active in promoting CPS, his failure to credit Dr. Greene as the originator is alarming and should not be downplayed. This omission in high-profile platforms — especially when Dr. Greene has been a prolific researcher and advocate for the model — raises important questions about professional ethics and intellectual property. The absence of Dr. Greene’s name from the materials associated with the Think:Kids organization and from Ablon’s work is not just an oversight; it appears to be a deliberate choice, which only exacerbates the situation.
The issue here is not just about proper attribution, but about the ethical responsibility to acknowledge intellectual contributions. CPS is Dr. Greene’s work, and it is not just a clinical intervention but a systemic, research-driven model with a profound impact. Erasing or downplaying Dr. Greene’s contributions, as seems to be happening in Ablon’s public communications, risks distorting the history and the significance of CPS as a transformative approach in education, psychology, and beyond.
Additionally, it sends a troubling message about how intellectual credit is handled in collaborative and community-driven fields. When Stuart Ablon fails to acknowledge Dr. Greene, it undermines the foundational principles of collaboration and respect that are central to the CPS approach itself. CPS relies on collaboration between the child and adult, and if this principle isn’t adhered to in the professional community, it risks diluting the integrity of the entire model.
If Ablon and MGH were going to explain things transparently – pure, unadulterated honesty, in other words — here’s what it would say on the Think:Kids website:
The Collaborative Problem Solving approach was originated by Dr. Ross Greene and first described in his book The Explosive Child, published in 1998. In 2008, when Massachusetts General Hospital demanded that Dr. Greene relinquish his intellectual property to the hospital, he refused. He made clear at the time that the fidelity of the CPS model, not money, was his primary concern. He wanted oversight of what was being done with his work and who was doing it, something to which MGH would not agree. In federal court, MGH won trademark ownership of “Collaborative Problem Solving,” and prohibited Dr. Greene from continuing to refer to his model by that name. Neither Stuart Ablon, the current Director of Think:Kids, nor MGH had anything to do with originating the Collaborative Problem Solving approach, but still use that name to market a variant of Dr. Greene’s work through MGH’s Think:Kids program. We are doing so without Dr. Greene’s consent and without explaining why Dr. Greene is no longer associated with our program.
At a recent Think:Kids training, the trainer was asked about the differences between the “Think:Kids model” and Dr. Greene’s original and current model. The trainer responded as follows (parenthetic content added for emphasis and clarity):
“Much of our philosophy and approach is founded on the work that Ross Greene and Stuart Ablon did together (I didn’t know Ablon when I originated the CPS model and wrote The Explosive Child), with some of that work coming from Dr. Greene prior to this collaboration (actually, the entire framework used by Ablon and Think:Kids was laid out in The Explosive Child). We are very appreciative of the contributions to our model from Dr. Greene (interesting way of showing it). He parted ways with Think:Kids years ago due to differences in the way he wanted to approach some big picture next steps for our organization (no, I left Think:Kids because I wasn’t willing to involuntarily relinquish the CPS model to a large hospital conglomerate or to people who had nothing to do with its development).”
And so it goes.
So, back to our original question: as it relates to disinformation or misinformation, which best characterizes Ablon being referred to as co-originator of the Collaborative Problem Solving approach and failing to acknowledge the true originator?
You make the call.
Ross Greene
“I thought it was strange that they (Think:Kids) were using (Dr. Greene’s) work, but (he’s) not mentioned on their website. It’s incredibly disheartening that people in this profession operate with such little integrity.”
— A Concerned Educator
Collaborative and Proactive Solutions™