Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A clinical interventive approach with case vignettes.

This historical phenomenological and clinically practical dissertation uses an integrated psychotherapeutic approach to explore the individual and interpersonal psychological dynamics of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in its socio-cultural context. In particular, it explores the use of psychodynamic strategic-solution focused therapy and Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) to foster client movement toward well-formed outcomes. This study first surveys the history of ADHD in the United States, from 1950 to 1980 and it explores the connections between socio-cultural thinking and the medicalization of ADHD. The relationship between ADHD and PTSD (Complex ADHD) is investigated and the integrated psychological mechanisms of this relationship are described. The insight developed is used to design and implement psychotherapeutic interventions. When individual and interpersonal issues are addressed concurrently powerful unconscious forces are triggered as the remembered places of the individual psyche intersect with the energy of here and now interpersonal activity. It is important to acknowledge the usefulness of medications; however, the non-pharmacologic humanistic method presented offers a useful model for individual, social, and academic health. Using the voices several children and adolescents, this dissertation presents several ADHD type narratives that confront and counter the notion that ADHD generally represents a state of cultural and academic abnormality. This study offers a contemporary alternative to the use of medications with some children and supports a humanistic ways of treating children.