Thom Hartmann Finds Himself Right in the Middle of the ADHD Debate
Whether or not any given person agrees with everything Thom has to say, he deserves our attention for the scope and breadth of his ideas.
This was originally written as a foreword to my book Thom Hartmann’s Complete Guide to ADHD by Peter Jaksa Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and an adult with ADHD. He was then the President of the National Attention Deficit Disorder Association. Dr. Jaksa is the author of 25 Stupid Mistakes Parents Make and Life With ADHD: Proven and Effective ADHD Coping Strategies for Real Life.
By Peter Jaksa, Ph.D.
We are, without question, engaged in a debate over how to look at people, the world, and life. It’s a very old debate with occasional new twists. The battle lines are roughly drawn between the empirical, hard-facts scientific approach on one hand, and a more humanistic, intuitive, even spiritual approach on the other hand.
This debate strikes home for people with attention deficit disorders because it is shaping the prevailing views and attitudes about the nature of ADD. Not so coincidentally, it is also shaping our views about the nature of people who happen to have ADHD.
If ADHD is a “pathology,” then are we by extension “pathological?” If ADHD is a “gift,” then should we simply celebrate our “giftedness?” Is ADHD an unfortunate biological condition that dooms people to a life of failure, underachievement, and misery? Is ADHD merely an artifact or excuse, manufactured to cover up the failures of poor parents and irresponsible adults?
Each of these views has been expressed by one or more supposed “experts” in the field. Who the heck is right?
These are not simple nor trivial questions, because how we come to view the nature of ADHD will have profound implications for how we perceive ourselves, our expectations and goals in life, even our children and other loved ones.
It should come as no big surprise that Thom Hartmann finds himself right in the middle of this debate. Ever since the introduction of his Hunter/Farmer metaphor for ADHD, Thom has inspired and provided hope for many thousands of people with ADHD who have read his books and listened to his talks.
He has also raised the blood pressure and attracted the criticism of those who disagree with him. More recently his views have been attacked by experts in the field who don’t consider his views to be “good science,” and basically seem to wish that Thom would just go away. For a number of reasons, I would argue that these criticisms are short sighted and unfair.
What we know for certain is that ADHD is a biological condition. It tends to run strongly in certain families due to genetic influences. It affects people in a number of ways and in different areas of life.
This condition appears to be part of our biological legacy as human beings that transcends culture, race, and continents. When we apply labels such as “gift” or “pathology” to it, that’s all we’re doing — making value judgments and applying labels.
These are open to perceptions, interpretations, and limits in understanding. Ah, but labels and perceptions can lift people up or crush them, help to heal them or cut them to the bone. Ask any child who’s been called “smart” or “dummy,” “gifted” or “disabled,” “healthy” or “sick.”
The empirical, research based model of ADHD is defined by the quality and quantity of symptoms and other behaviors that can be measured and identified. What is “real” from this viewpoint is what can be measured and quantified, and withstand the rigors of statistical analysis.
The well-meaning empiricists thus come to view ADHD traits and behaviors at the most observable, quantifiable level. Much of this research is conducted on clinical populations, meaning people with ADHD who are experiencing the most problems in their lives and seeking help to manage them. Small wonder then that ADHD, viewed from this point of view, comes out as “pathology” and becomes defined essentially in terms of symptoms, problems, and impairment.
This type of research is useful in identifying some of the problems that can be caused by ADHD, but it by no means provides a full or complete picture of what ADHD is or how it affects people. It identifies many problems that people can experience, but ultimately misses the larger picture of the person behind them.
It paints a picture of ADHD as a condition that can cause difficulties in life, which at times can indeed cause impairment, but misses the many positive qualities that are also associated with this complex biological phenomenon.
By missing the positive qualities, unfortunately, it denies their very existence.
This can cause severe damage not only to basic truths and accuracy concerning ADHD, but more importantly it can damage the images and perceptions that people with ADHD form about themselves. This view, if presented as the entire picture of what ADHD is about, can cause real harm to those it is most intended to help.
Talk to some true believers of the empirical, controlled studies approach about the increased creativity, spontaneity, emotional warmth, and energy of many people with ADHD and they may look at you like you’re from another planet. Those positive qualities or traits, after all, have not been empirically measured, have they? Of course not, and they may never be measured in that way.
It is foolish to conclude, however, that those positive traits are “not real” or “unproven.” There are many, many qualities which make us most intimately and uniquely human — love, religious faith, loyalty, a sense of hope, natural curiosity — that never have been and never can be measured or analyzed via objective empirical methods.
How preposterous it would sound for anyone to deny the existence of such uniquely human qualities. And yet, a nationally known and respected expert on ADHD, a decent and well meaning individual by all accounts, recently made the public statement that “it’s a myth that there’s anything good about ADHD.”
How preposterous indeed.
The immeasurable, valuable contribution of Thom Hartmann is that he strives mightily to put the “human” back into our views of human beings with ADHD. Thom “gets” what it means to be a person with ADHD, by looking beneath the surface and seeing beyond the problems.
Many adults with ADHD, in particular, intuitively understand what he is talking about and can strongly identify with Thom’s message. He describes their reality in a way that no research study or clinical model of ADHD can hope to define it.
In so doing Thom helps to provide some counterbalance to the predominantly “bad news,” problem-oriented, so-called pathology model of ADHD. He helps provide validation, and increased hope, for people who are too often told that they’re not as good and their future is not as hopeful.
For these reasons we owe Thom Hartmann our thanks and gratitude for his role as a writer, speaker, and advocate for people with ADHD. Thom is also an exceedingly creative thinker (a consequence no doubt of his lively and active ADHD mind), and has shown a penchant for ideas and solutions that sometimes stray far off the beaten path.
Whether or not any given person agrees with everything Thom has to say, he deserves our attention for the scope and breadth of his ideas. This is how awareness grows, and how invention and innovation occur.
Peter Jaksa, Ph.D.
Thom deserves my thanks for helping me see that ADHD is not disorder, but another way of being in the world. At this point in time, people with the gift of ADHD often don't fit in places created for the majority and need to find their own way.
In what may be true ADHD fashion it took me a week to get to this. My own journey started before being tested at the age of ten and diagnosed with an IQ of 140. ADHD was part of that diagnosis. At the age of eight I was dealt corporal punishment at the hands of a mother superior at a catholic school. I did not know what I had done to deserve it. I suspect now it was my lack of blind faith in what I was being told. My gifts may have made the nuns think I was possessed.
Shortly after that incident we were placed in public school where I was tested and diagnosed. At fourteen my family moved to a new town, with a supposedly better school system. I was auditioned for a program for gifted students. I was the only one in the test group to not get into the program. ADHD had me perform the audition my own way.
I nearly flunked out of high school. I was bullied. Some of the bullying was done by teachers. They favored the "popular" kids and looked down at geeky nerds like me. I was unmotivated to try. I believe the administrators of the school system were ADHD deniers. My needs were dismissed. My complaints about the algebra teacher who looked the other way when I was bullied in his class were ignored.
I got a degree in engineering twenty years after barely graduating from high school. Part of that was doing high school over at community college where the social dynamic was not as negative.