Neurotechnology Goes to Polish School. An Ethnographic Story About Scanning ADHD

Psychiatrization of, with and by children: Drawing a complex picture

“…To do this, we provide two detailed vignettes from empirical research into how psy-knowledges shape young people’s lives and evoke different sets of practices, provoking various responses. We discuss two ethnographic vignettes which complexify discussions of psychiatrization and show how it can be ‘done to’ children, ‘with’ children or even ‘by’ children (Witeska-Młynarczyk, 2019). The vignettes are based on two research projects carried out by one of the authors in Poland.…”

“…Children’s perspectives have been sought on a variety of mental health issues, and experiences of distress and of services (Mills, 2018; Singh, 2011). Much of this literature conceptualizes children as social actors, capable of representing themselves and their experiences, and as active research participants (LeFrançois, 2008; Witeska-Młynarczyk, 2019) or in some cases as co-researchers (Liegghio, 2016). Unsurprisingly, given the heterogeneity of children’s lives, this research shows multiple and sometimes conflicting experiences of psychiatrization.…”

“…In this discussion, we reflect upon ways in which young people get engaged in ‘zones of potential circulation’ (Lakoff, 2005: 63) of psy-knowledges and practices, and associated commercial interests. Zones of circulation include global diagnostic manuals, such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ( DSM ), currently in its fifth edition (American Psychiatric Association (APA), 2013); the ways diagnostic manuals, as the primary ‘boss texts’ of psychiatry, are activated by different actors for different purposes (Hande et al, 2016: 87); how diagnostic criteria circulate to professionals and more widely, for example, through their inclusion in University textbooks (Te Meerman et al, 2017); and broader scale transnational flows of psy-knowledge (Bergey et al, 2018), including the power dynamics and coloniality that structure the circulation of psychiatric knowledge and practices in relation to children around the world (Béhague, 2018; Mills, 2014; Witeska-Młynarczyk, 2019).…”

“…Such minute interactions portray a chaotic bundle of events which impact the way Steven positions himself towards the ADHD diagnosis and psy-practices performed by the adults. In his case, the ADHD diagnosis is a contested terrain (Witeska-Młynarczyk, 2018, 2019), a statement over which the adults fight. Since the 1990s, the local infrastructure in Malden was taking a new form shaped, among others, by transnational flows of knowledge, goods, and practices involving the increased professionalization of child and youth psychiatry and the encroachment of pharmaceutical companies on a newly freed market.…”

“…When discussed in the context of diagnosing or medicating children, psychiatrization is usually portrayed as a more or less monolithic top-down process, which, according to some, enables a child’s right to health, while to others is a form of child abuse (Burstow, 2017). Research into children’s accounts of psychiatrization serves to challenge both adult centric professionalized assumptions of acting in children’s ‘best interests’, as well as more critical sociological assumptions of the top-down medicalization of children’s lives (Brady, 2014; Mills, 2018: 250–251; Singh, 2011; Witeska-Młynarczyk, 2018, 2019). This makes children and young people’s mental health a ‘complex, controversial and contested terrain’ (Mills, 2018: 250).…”