A Best Friend? You Must Be Kidding

The New York Times ^ | June 16, 2010 | HILARY STOUT

[healy61]

10 days is an eternity to a little kid to be able to play with a friend. It took my mom about 10 seconds of a kid hanging around the kitchen to then say, “Get outside and play or I will put you to work.” Playing was always the choice.

[surrey]

I met my best friend when we were both entering the 3rd grade in 1954. We remained best friends til her death last year. One of the saddest days of my life.

[TopQuark]

"He noted that people who had intimate(non-erotic) same-sex best friends as children, seldom developed severe mental illness later in life."

Most psychologists, having failed algebra in high school, do not develop good logical skills and, in particular, often confuse correlation with causation.

In this case, he is likely to have reversed causality: people that are born with mental problems that become evident later in life do not develop close relationships --- even in childhood, when their problems are dormant.