Therapeutic States and Attention Deflicts: Differential Cross-National Diagnostics and Treatments.

The growth of the therapeutic state in U.S. society has led to a rise in the naming of mental disorders for behaviors previously viewed as diverse or deviant. The current popularity of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and/or attention deficit disorder (ADD) for children (and adults) in the U.S. provides an example of this growth especially when it is compared to Europe, particularly Britain, Germany and France. Furthermore, compared to the U.S., research on hyperkinetic disorder is considerably more diverse, although significantly less in amount. In addition to having more restrictive diagnostic criteria, behaviors considered as attention deficits in the U.S. are typically viewed as problems of conduct in Europe. In this article, they examine the social construction of this mental disorder by examining institutional differences between the U.S. and Europe including the state and the organizational structure of the medical establishment, its political power, and the predominant focus of research in clinical psychology.