When Discipline Disappeared and Diagnoses Took Over

I receive fairly frequent—two or three a month—emails from a group that puts on seminars and workshops for mental health professionals. The latest, titled “New Skills for ADHD Treatment,” caused me to wonder how one goes about treating something that doesn’t exist. So, I opened the email and discovered that the treatment in question is known as the “neurodiverse-affirming approach.”

My profession is constantly inventing new therapies to conceal the fact that none of them actually work, so I had to look that up, thus discovering that “a neurodiversity-affirming approach recognizes and embraces the natural diversity of human brains and minds, valuing neurodivergent individuals' unique strengths and characteristics rather than viewing them as deficits or problems to be fixed. It shifts the focus from trying to make neurodivergent individuals conform to neurotypical norms to supporting their individual needs and preferences, fostering a sense of belonging and acceptance.”

If one reads carefully, that BS boils down to…(a) everyone is neurodivergent in some way, and (b) everyone’s neurodivergence is okay.