From 'guilty' to 'active victims'. Issues for families diagnosed with ADD/ADHD

Over the last fifteen years, the growing influence of neurosciences in the field of mental health has led to the redefinition of child's conduct disorders, care practices and a growing questioning of psychodynamic approaches. Hyperactivity in children is a good analyser of these changes where parent's associations play an important role. Their collective mobilization and relations with some practitioners help promote supports that meet their expectations: that we stop questionning them and make them feel guilty, that we stop to unfairly reject their child and guidance to manage their child. This article shows how the opportunity to recognize their child's difficulties as belonging to attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) meet these expectations and how parents appropriate this psychiatric category as a social tool so that the can act in social life and at school and finalty shift from a passive role to an active one. Adapted from the source document.