UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title On the Other Side of Hyperactivity: an Anthropology of ADHD Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/341572hh Author Goodwin, Marc Publication Date 2010 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California On the Other Side of Hyperactivity: An Anthropology of ADHD by Marc Andrew Goodwin A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in Charge: Professor Lawrence Cohen, Chair Professor Xin Liu Ingrid Seyer-Ochi Professor Vincanne Adams (UCSF) Spring 2010 Abstract On the Other Side of Hyperactivity: An Anthropology of ADHD by Marc Andrew Goodwin Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology University of California, Berkeley Professor Lawrence Cohen, Chair This dissertation, On the Other Side of Hyperactivity: an Anthropology of ADHD, provides a meta-historical and cultural perspective on the emergence and proliferation of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in the United States over the last three decades. Through in-depth multi-sited ethnography (15 months in the San Francisco Bay Area) with doctors, educators, parents, and children as well as detailed archival research into the disorder’s antecedents, my research explores how ADHD operates as both a psychiatric category and social imaginary that links together in its operation the domains of education, biomedicine, and family life in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. More broadly, by examinig the relationship between consumption and time, my analysis pushes the study of ADHD into new territory showing how ADHD’s symptoms—hyperactivity and impulsivity—operate both through the body and its exteroor milieus creating a new architecture of experience in contemporary American life. Toward this end, my analysis here develops a renewed concept of hyperactivity that differs from the term’s everyday use. Hyperactivity comes from the Greek ὑπέρ-, “over, beyond, above” and the Latin āctīvus related to the noun āctus, a “driving” or “impulse.” In both its broadest sense as a concept and its specific meanings as a medical category, hyperactivity as a condition marks a threshold. On the one hand, the challenge of this dissertation is to locate this threshold by attending both ethnographically and historically to the ways that hyperactivity has been marked as a significant problem in the world: for example, when and where does hyperactivity emerge as a target of psychiatric intervention? Why does its diagnosis and treatment remain controversial today? How do scientific and medical approaches to hyperactivity challenge commonsense ideas about personal responsibility and accountability? More importantly, the challenge is to think life on the other side of this threshold, on the other side of hyperactivity. This means thinking hyperactivity not simply as a medical category or oppressive label, but as an active and dynamic force. It also means thinking hyperactivity not only in the negative sense of the limits it sets on life—how do the categories, labels, modes of treatment and diagnosis of the condition constrain and confine, etc.—but also in the positive powers of creativity, novelty, and difference. Therefore the task, I argue, and what my dissertation attempts to do, is to show through sustained empirical attention and conceptual reflection the singular way hyperactivity articulates things like neurological deficit, rituals of self-stimulation, habits of consumption, and modes of identification and belonging that before had no direct connection, and thus to appreciate what is new and different about hyperactivity in the world today. 1 2 Acknowledgements This dissertation would not have been possible without the insight, support, and input from friends, informants, professors, and fellow students. To begin with, I would like to thank my informants who took time out of their lives to contribute to my project and often out of a genuine interest to help both me and to advance our knowledge of ADHD. Because of the stigma of ADHD and learning disabilities, and for other reasons of privacy, I can’t list them by name here, but their contributions to this dissertation are much appreciated. In addition, I would like to thank members and the board of the East Bay Learning Disabilities Association (including the state chapter of the Learning Disabilities Association), as well as members of the Northern California branch of Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD). The research for this dissertation was made possible by a Dissertation Fieldwork Grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the writing of this dissertation was funded by a University of California Chancellor’s Dissertation Fellowship. Members of my committee were instrumental in helping me think through and complete my research and dissertation. My advisor Lawrence Cohen, had many wonderful insights for my project, provided moral support, and also encouraged me to think carefully and critically but also with generosity. In addition he generously put up with the many demands I made on his time and I appreciate his efforts. Liu Xin taught me the value of reading and asking questions. More broadly, he always gave his time, effort, and support, which made my time as a graduate student a lot easier and much more rewarding. Vincanne Adams provided valuable insight and feedback on my work, and also helped shape my thinking about topics in medical anthropology and science studies. Ingrid Seyer- Ochi was always very helpful and generous with her time and as the outside member of my committee she also made valuable suggestions about the art of the ethnographic interview, which were of value in my fieldwork. Niranjin Karnik provided both professional insight (as both a scholar and a clinician) and moral support for me as I was preparing for my oral examinations and embarking on my project. In addition to my committee members, many other professors helped make this dissertation possible. Nancy Scheper-Hughes helped me formulate a viable research proposal and helped me organize a pilot project I carried out in the Fall of 2005, Winter 2006. Her early input was crucial for framing my project. Paul Rabinow taught me how to think with Foucault rather than merely apply him and also how to read closely. The fact that Foucault doesn’t appear more in these pages stems from my respect for that approach. He also gave valuable insight into chapter three of this dissertation. Paula Fass provided close readings of chapter three, and her input helped shape its basic form and insights. As a historian, her guidance also helped me work more critically and carefully with sources and apply a more historiographic approach to writing. David Bates provided early input on what would become chapter two of this dissertation, and he also encouraged me to write, and helped supervise, an exercise paper that I wrote on Deleuze’s concepts of the actual and the virtual that provided both a conceptual framework and special insight for this dissertation. Stephen Hinshaw in the department of psychology is a leading researcher on ADHD, his knowledge of the subject is encyclopedic and he was helpful in providing early feed back on the project. I am also indebted to Carol Stack who helped arrange my work with Berkeley High School. I also appreciated her insights into ethnographic methods as well as her empathy and interest in my project. Paul Guillory taught me many important insights about family therapy which provided invaluable in my research with both i psychologists, psychiatrists, and with families. Terry Deacon helped with the very early stages of my project, and his knowledge of the brain and his patience in explaining both the big picture and the finer points of ADHD were much appreciated. As chair of the department Rosemary Joyce was helpful in guiding me through important transitional moments in the program and she also taught me a lot about pedagogy that I am very grateful for. Linda van Hoene and Sabrina Sorrocco helped me prepare to make the transition from student to professor, and Sabrina also read drafts of this work in progress and taught me a lot about copy-editing that was helpful for this dissertation. My undergraduate advisor Ken Ledford was a wonderful mentor and he taught me, even as an undergraduate the importance of scholarship and careful thinking. He was also a wonderful teacher. Jonathan Sadowsky perhaps gave me the idea for this dissertation in a seminar discussion of Discipline and Punish. The way he used ADHD to illustrate the difference between potestas and productive power in Foucault was brilliant and I may never have embarked on this project had his point not made such an impression on me. Janis Jenkins, Rachel Chapman, James Pfeiffer, and Atwood Gaines also taught me everything I needed to know for graduate school and I am grateful for their early mentorship. I participated in two dissertation writing groups that made this process a lot easier and certainly a lot more fun. Thanks to Dan Husman, Shana Harris, Alfred Montoya, Emily Wilcox, Thomas Ordoñez, Erin Mahaffey and Stefan Kloos. My other dissertation group— consisting of Suepatra May, Ben Hickler, Robin Higashi, and Kat Thompson—also provided valuable feedback in the early writing stages. There were also many of other graduate students whose conversations, friendship, and support I have benefited from including: Angie Heo, Monica Eppinger, Carlo Caduff, Nikolas Langlitz, Timoteo Rodriguez, Maki Tanaka, Jenny Chio, Amelia Moore, China Schertz, Nate Dumas, Larissa Kurtovic, James Battle, Andy Hao, Brad Ericson, Marian Swanzy-Parker, Eric Plemons, Chris Vasantkumar, Andy Roddick, Kevin Karpiak, Theresa MacPhail, Shannon May, Pete Skafish, Cindy Huang, Meg Stalcup and many others too numerous to be listed here. I’d also like to thank my parents, Debbie and Karl, and my sister Amanda who provided much love and support.