While it's quite clear that the convergence of the pressures of high
modernity, the increasingly competitive model of public education, the
growth of neo-liberalism, the burgeoning of the psychopharmaceutical
machine, and the increasing psychiatrization of all of us (including
children) are factors that contribute to the growth of drugs like Ritalin
and diagnoses like ADD, the problem of 'what then must be done' remains.
I am a mother of a child (now a young woman) who was diagnosed with ADD, and
I am also the author of a book stemming from comparative research between
Canada and the UK on ways of dealing with ADD. I come away from both
experiences quite disheartened: resistance is, it seems, quite difficult (if
not futile), and these polemeical medicalization-versus-anti-psychiatry
debates don't actually clairfy much when it comes time to decide what to do
to help a child get through the school years without too much damage, one
way or another.
I don't have solutions, only questions to offer, but those who are
interested might want to have a look at the book, which was published last
November through the University of Toronto Press in Canada. It is, I
believe, available in the UK as well, and can be ordered through Amazon,
Barnes & Noble, WHSmith and Chapters. Here is the University of Toronto link
for ordering, and the book details:
http://www.utppublishing.com/detail.asp?TitleID=2727
Cold Comfort: Mothers, Professionals, and Attention Deficit (Hyperactivity)
Disorder
Claudia Malacrida
University of Toronto Press © 2003.
6x9 / 288 pp /
World Rights
ISBN Binding Price UK Price Availability Pub Date
080208558X Paper $27.95 £18.00 ACT 11/8/2003
0802087523 Cloth $55.00 £35.00 ACT 11/15/2003
Availability: Active/Available.
---------------------------------------------------------
Abstract:
Mothers of children with Attention Deficit Disorder must inevitably make
decisions regarding their children's diagnosis within a context of competing
discourses about the nature of the disorder and the legitimacy of its
treatment. They also make these decisions within an overriding climate of
mother-blame. Claudia Malacrida's Cold Comfort provides a contextualized
study of how mothers negotiate with/against the 'helping professions' over
assessment and treatment for their AD(H)D children.
Malacrida counters current conceptions about mothers of AD(H)D children
(namely that mothers irresponsibly push for Ritalin to manage their
children's behaviour) as well as professional assumptions of maternal
pathology. This thought-provoking examination documents Malacrida's
extensive interviews with mothers of affected children in both Canada and
the United Kingdom, and details the way in which these women speak of their
experiences. Malacrida compares their narratives to national discourses and
practices, placing the complex mother-child and mother-professional
relations at the centre of her critical inquiry.
Drawing on both poststructural discourse analysis and feminist standpoint
theory, Malacrida makes a critical contribution to qualitative methodologies
by developing a feminist discursive ethnography of the construction of
AD(H)D in two divergent cultures. On a more personal level, she offers
readers a moving, nuanced, and satisfying examination of real women and
children facing both public and private challenges linked to AD(H)D.
Praise for Cold Comfort:
'Cold Comfort offers a moving, comprehensible, and credible picture of the
worlds of children and mothers grappling with ADD/ADHD. Claudia Malacrida
has written a book that is bound to provide a great deal of challenging
insight to various sorts of readers. I expect that mothers, fathers, and
children in families touched by the diagnosis or the possible diagnosis of
ADD/ADHD would garner a great deal of support for their struggles from this
book. It should also be of great interest to medical and educational
professionals, researchers and scholars, as well as sociologists,
psychologists, psychiatrists, and social work researchers and scholars. This
well written book is nuanced, personal, and intellectually satisfying, and
makes a significant contribution to research.'
- Juanne Clarke, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Wilfrid Laurier
University.
Best regards,
Claudia Malacrida
Assistant Professor, Sociology
University of Lethbridge
4401 University Drive
Lethbridge, Alberta
T1K 3M4
Tel: (403) 329-2738
Fax: (403) 329-2085
________________End of message______________________
Archives and tools for the Disability-Research Discussion List
are now located at:
www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html
You can JOIN or LEAVE the list from this web page.
|
