Our previous class traced the history of therapeutic treatments for individuals diagnosed with poor tension and or unacceptable conduct. Today we will explore people's lived experience with being so diagnosed. Until the 1990s the diagnoses were almost exclusively given to children. Understandably these children left few accounts of their experiences. Though there are first person retrospective narratives of people who are committed as children to institutions in the midst 20th century. Two of these accounts are by individuals who spend time in the same institution. The Lyman School in Massachusetts. Both men wrote books about their life experiences though they were count contrasting experiences. The first is Mark Devlin. Born in 1948, whose book Stubborn Child tells of being beaten by his father and at seven years old, his mother filed a stubborn child complaint with the state of Massachusetts. Declared a stubborn child Devlin was sent to Lyman School. He recounted harsh experiences though did mention positive interactions with several exceptional teachers. He ultimately declared that this school and the system in general made him into a criminal. In fact, Devlin spent much of his adult life entangled in legal problems and was homeless for almost 30 years. The other is Richard Johnson who attended the school in 1957, 58 when he was 15 years old and describes his experience in Abominable Firebug. Johnson recalls as he said, I was a hyperactive kid, he adds, and I quote, my parents tried to control me by beating me up. His parents sent him to a mental institution then a halfway house. Johnson reported that he was sent to Lyman because he launched a rocket that struck and burned the barn. He described life at Lyman in mostly positive terms. I quote, there was a day room with large tables to write letters. The top floor was an open dorm with around sixty to a hundred beds. There was a common cafeteria which was for the whole facility. As far as staff, there was a cottage master and matron who lived on the site and there was also a night watchman. We have movies, a roller skating night, church services, catholic and protestant only. Sports were mandatory cottages played other cottages, end quote. According to Johnson Lyman top rules, regulations, vocations. He eventually left, finished high school and graduated from college becoming an engineer. Two boys residing in the same facility for troubled children, recount dramatically different experiences. If we forward our survey to the era of medicating children, the retrospective self reports are similarly varied. Some adults who are medicated as children report that they were not the same person on medication. Drugs engendered the sense of that there were two people, the medicated and the not medicated. Others report medications benefits which enabled them to perform well in school. In 2012 study interviewed current children who have been diagnosed with ADD and are medicated. The voices study included British and American 11 year old's found that the children's experiences were dependent on the local context. Notably dependent on whether that context emphasize performance, good performance or conduct. The study found the children's moral reasoning was connected with their diagnoses. For instance children living in a context that emphasize performance report experiences like. And I quote one, hmm I got my name on the board and I got an F on my report card and my mom was really mad, end quote. In a context oriented towards conduct. One child reported that the stimulant medication and I quote. Helps me behave better but it don't make you behave better, it only can help you, but it can help make better decisions for you, end quote. Most children describe being the same person on and off medication though some did describe being different. When asked if they were the same person one child responded. I quote, I'm a bit both. Like I am a bit the same person. I always am on medication. It's just I act a bit different but I'm actually always, I'm always the same person, end quote. Another reported that it is like being superman, being either an ordinary person and a not order ordinary person. The recent awareness adults can suffer from ADHD has resulted in numerous adult narratives of their life before and after being diagnosed. Chante Joseph a black woman recalls her life before diagnosis. And I quote, my mind was like a pinball machine without any controls, constant lights, information, actions and ideas but no motivation to execute them, end quote. She noted also that, and I quote, ADHD stereotype of young white hyperactive boys is doubly damaging for black women in particular who feel it impossible to see themselves in the narrative. Failing to see themselves represented, they then hesitate to seek out adequate support, end quote. Once diagnosed, she found talking and having support groups is really important for people with ADHD. And after diagnosis she came to appreciate and I quote, that all the ways that ADHD has made me a great person who was fun to be around and never boring. ADHD has given me creative ideas and a fearless spirit that hasn't let me down yet, end quote. In summary narratives of living with non normative experiences of attention and conduct control. Show how life experiences are affected by the environmental niche in which one lives. By the people central to their lives and the kinds of treatments they do or do not receive. Above all, the narratives underscore the diversity of our psychological makeup. That is, the great variations of mental processes among humans. Our final class will explore and reflect upon this diversity
