Year: 2006
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: This essay offers a critical review of the problem we call “ADHD”. In the first part of the discussion, the author presents an analysis of the literature surrounding Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Adopting a lens informed by the work of Foucault, she teases out the medical and psychological models to show the interdependency between these otherwise competing knowledge‐domains. She argues that as it currently stands the construct serves political ends and questions whether a diagnosis of ADHD is helpful ‐ and if so, for whom? In the second part, the author considers what role schooling practices might play in the pathologisation of children and interrogates the ADHD phenomenon as a symptom of the pathologies of schooling. Graham concludes by suggesting how we might arrest the rising rate of diagnosis by thinking about difference in more inclusive ways. The problem we call “ADHD” Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or “ADHD ” as it is now commonly known, is a modern phenomenon that has sparked virulent debate in recent years. An exponential increase in the rate of diagnosis and prescription of psycho‐pharmaceuticals has occurred in Western developed nations; most noticeably in the US and Australia. In the research literature, “ADHD ” manifests as either a medical, psychological or social construct and controversies result because of an
Author: Linda J. Graham
Institution: Queensland University of Technology
Language: English
Subfield: Psychiatry and Mental health
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1518985