Beyond the Diagnosis: Reframing Adult ADHD in a Psychotherapeutic and Sociocultural Context
Authors
Mill, Helen
Issue Date
2025.16.12
Degree
MA in Pscyhotherapy
Publisher
Dublin Business School
Rights holder
Rights
Open Access
Abstract
This thesis interrogates how adult Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is defined, experienced, and treated within contemporary culture, with the aim of developing a relational, neurodiversity-informed, and neurodivergent-affirming psychotherapeutic framework. It explores how dominant narratives continue to pathologise attentional difference while obscuring the roles of stigma, shame, and emotional dysregulation. Drawing on academic literature, diagnostic manuals, memoirs, and podcasts, the study critiques deficit-based models and centres lived experience. The methodology integrates Foucauldian discourse analysis, Lacanian psychoanalysis, and perspectives from the neurodiversity paradigm to examine discursive power, affect, and identity. Findings highlight how ADHD is shaped by sociocultural forces, intersectional exclusions, and internalised norms around productivity and self-control. The study concludes by proposing inclusive clinical adaptations grounded in co-regulation, pacing, and mentalization, repositioning therapy away from behavioural correction and towards attuned, identity-affirming engagement and ethical responsiveness.