Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Diagnosis and Stereotypy

The official symptoms of attention deficit disorder and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) as first codified in the 3rd edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders bear an uneasy resemblance to potent caricatures of Blacks that had long been in circulation in the United States. In effect, traits such as laziness and troublesomeness persistently associated with Blacks became symptoms that could be had by anyone, Black, White, or other. But just as racial imagery plays on stereotypes, the ADHD diagnosis itself has become a stereotype. Only stereotyped figures have the telltale marks of identity that children with ADHD are said to have. As we have known at least since the time of the prejudice studies cited by the United States Supreme Court in 1954, stereotypes can be highly injurious, especially if they are internalized by their objects. Children who grow with the diagnosis of ADHD, incorporating it into their sense of self even while it is under construction, may well internalize its messages. That in turn may have something to do with the dismal long-term outcomes of ADHD despite the relative rarity of severe cases.