Childhoods at the Margin: The Meaning of Diagnosis in Identity Formation

Abstract

This article examines how the diagnostic perspective on certain psychological disorders, such as ADHD, impacts the identity formation of children. We begin by analyzing how the meaning ascribed to a diagnosis can serve two markedly different functions for those affected. In contexts where a disorder diagnosis is understood as a form of social divergence, children may rely on it to positively construct their own identity, affirming themselves through difference. Conversely, in environments where the diagnosis is interpreted as a behavioral abnormality, children are likely to be stigmatized for their behavioral divergences and subjected to various forms of injustice, ultimately undermining their self-esteem. The article is structured into three sections. The first critically discusses the notion of diagnostic reliability in relation to the conceptual distinction between health and illness within the psy sciences during the 19th and 20th centuries, emphasizing the need to clarify the meaning of diagnosis by acknowledging the distinction between abnormality and normativity, often neglected by a medicalized view. The second section explores social normativity within an adult-centered framework that conceives children as lacking agency, a view that generates different forms of injustice —testimonial, hermeneutical, affective, and motor— for children diagnosed with ADHD, as they struggle to fully comply with structured norms. In this sense, the child is placed in a silent process of identity construction, which, under the pressure of "normalizing†behaviors, permeates their sense of self-confidence and shapes how they engage in self-care to meet a regulatory ideal. The third section seeks to approach the perceptual experience of children with ADHD through certain insights from Merleau-Ponty's philosophy of perception, aiming to redirect the validation of diagnosis toward recognizing the value of divergence and childhood itself.