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MAY 2007

Review of Attention Deficit Disorder: Unfocused Mind In Children And Adults

By Merri Rosenberg

Attention Deficit Disorder:
The Unfocused Mind In Children And Adults

by Thomas E. Brown, Ph.D.
Published by Yale University Press: New Haven & London. 2005: 360 pp.

Here’s a useful reference book that would certainly be helpful to parents and teachers who struggle to understand why their children and students have difficulties. Although it’s sometimes a little jargon-driven for the lay reader (and in places seems to be targeted more to psychologists, counselors and physicians) this comprehensive exploration of the sometimes baffling expressions of attention deficit disorder makes a significant contribution.

Using real-life examples and case studies, Dr. Thomas E. Brown elucidates the various ways ADD (and ADHD) may appear on a spectrum. There are those with the disorder who simply can’t get themselves started on a project, procrastinating for hours on end until time runs out. There are others whose executive function is suppressed by the disorder, so they are unable to establish meaningful priorities for the tasks that need to be accomplished. Still others may manage just fine in the highly structured and supervised environment of an elementary school classroom, with the ADD/ADHD only becoming a problem during secondary school, when they’re require to deal not only with changing classes, but extra-curricular activities, more homework, even a more complex social scene.

And unlike many other books that focus only on the child and adolescent, Brown addresses the challenges young adults and  older adults confront at college, the workplace, and at home. For example, a student with ADD who’s functioned well enough at high school, under the watchful eye of her parents, may fall to pieces at college–skipping needed medications, not managing assignments or readings appropriately, or being cut adrift from a familiar social network. Or someone may succumb to what Brown calls “omnipotentiality”–“ all things are possible, all choices are open.”

Similarly, in the workplace individuals with ADD may find it impossible to meet deadlines–or to make it to work on time. Nor are the middle-aged immune: consider the plight of an adult who knows he has an important meeting the following morning, yet doesn’t finish his preparation for that presentation, and stays up late playing video games or watching television.

Before the reader decides that, “wait, I’ve got those symptoms–maybe I’ve been walking around with undiagnosed ADD all these years,” relax. Brown provides a very helpful chapter (# 7, “How ADD Syndrome Differs from Normal Inattention”) that clarifies the distinction. One key question to consider, he suggests, is how much the behavior interferes–or not–with a person’s daily life.

In its scope, ambition and execution, this is a definitive work that should be of great benefit to many readers.#

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