Attention Deficit Disorder : A Different Perception (Paperback)

by Thom Hartmann (Author), Edward M. Hallowell (Introduction) (Author), Michael Popkin (Foreword) (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Scientific American
Innovative and fresh .... Rather than portraying the syndrome as a crippling disease, Thom Hartmann demonstrates that ADD can be associated with creativity, high achievement, and a most successful adaptive style. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
Thom Hartmann demonstrates that ADD can be associated with creativity, high achievement, and a most successful adaptive style." -- Edward Hallowell, MD and John Ratey, MD, authors of "Driven to Distraction. "This book...indicates that uncritical acceptance of the notion of ADD may conceal the need for basic reforms in our nation's public schools. -- Jay C. Fikes, Ph.D., Cultural Anthropologist

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Product Details

• Paperback: 238 pages
• Publisher: Underwood Books; 2nd edition (August 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1887424148
• ISBN-13: 978-1887424141
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #111,465 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #45 in	Books > Parenting & Families > Special Needs > Hyperactivity
  #48 in	Books > Health, Mind & Body > Disorders & Diseases > Attention Deficit Disorder

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revolutionary thinking, turns the ADD debate on its head!, March 28, 1999

By A Customer

The most insightful book on ADD I have read to date. While not the perfect diagnostic starter's manual for ADD newcomers, this book is an imperative read for all ADDer who have a negative view of their condition.

Hartmann has crafted a scientifically supported theory that empowers ADDers. Hartmann asserts that ADDer are "hunters" living in a society that has literally evolved into a culture of "farmers." While the common ADD traits of distractibility and quick thinking were essential in hunting an antelope, they are less desirable when planting rows of crops or balancing a checkbook.

Unlike many ADD books, this is not a substance-less, feel-good read. Hartmann acknowledges the working realities/difficulties of being an ADD "hunter" in a non-ADD "farmer" world. Only Harman's model, based on the evolution of the human brain, frames the ADD debate in a manner that brings ADDers on equal intellectual footing with their non-ADD counterparts. In the hunter/farmer model, ADD is not a disorder or defect of the brain, rather a set of traits that are not perfectly suited to getting through the many mundane tasks of a farmers world.

Drawing upon ADDers like Einstein, Franklin and Edison, Hartmann illustrates how many ADDers have utilized their quick-react "hunter" brains to achieve incredible success in a "farmer" world. Not only is this book empowering for people who view their ADD as a "disadvantage," this book is must read for the parents and teacher who shape the perceptions of ADD children.

49 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The most Important ADD Book Written, January 13, 2000

By	Robert Kall "Rob Kall of Opednews.com" (Newtown, PA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you only read one book on ADD, read th is one, or Thom Hartmann's Complete Book on ADHD, which covers the same turf as this one. This book shouold be required reading by any health care provider, educator, counselor, etc. who works with ADD/ADHD. It offers a positive, hopeful view of ADHD. The truth is, many, if not most of the leaders, visionaries, explorers, pioneers and people who make the big differences in this world have been or are people who would meet the characteristics of an ADD person. Hartmann's book explains it. if you are ADD or love someone who is, it wold be tragic for you to not know the ideas in this book.
If you listen to many of the "experts" on ADD/HD, people with this diagnosis are not only disordered, they are pathologically defective. Thom Hartmann went through this destructive labeling with his child, and came out of the dark tunnel with a new light-- people with ADD are Different-- Hunters in a Farmers world. And in many cases, they function better than the farmers... if the setting is right. This book should be required reading for parents of children with ADD and adults with ADD. It is a wonderful breath of fresh air for people who are feeling bad about the diagnosis and their future.

I'm a relatively successful person who is clearly ADD. Thom's way of thinking about it enables me, and my ADD daughter to be proud of our attentional differences. The human race evolved for millions of years as hunters, and for the last 10,000 years as farmers. What do you think evolution prepared us better for? This book will bolster your attitude for dealing with teachers and others who push Ritalin or other stimulants as a quick fix to your or your child's differences.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hartmann and Drugs, May 4, 2006

By	Douglas Robinson (Oxford, MS United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Hartmann is a successful multitasker: not only does he write popular books on ADD/ADHD, he has published numerous books of poetry, has opened four hospitals in Third World countries, and so on. His point is that ADD/ADHD is a curse if it is not channeled properly, but can be a great blessing, and an enormous goad (and even key) to success if the "sufferer" learns to handle it, learns to cope with it.

As someone who was bored in school not just because it was repetitive, not just because teachers spent way too much time on task for the attention spans of children, but because it was all too EASY, I recognized myself in Hartmann's case studies immediately. But I was never diagnosed with ADD or ADHD because I learned to cope early. I taught myself to stay on task long enough to finish projects. And as Hartmann stresses, that's the key: finishing projects. When you're ADD, or a "hunter," it requires an extra effort of focus to do it, at first--not just a burst of focus, but a willingness to keep your nose to the grindstone for long periods of time (HOURS! DAYS!) no matter how much it hurts--but soon enough the effort is internalized and success on the world's terms becomes much easier.

Not that the "farmers" will necessarily understand that success. My colleagues say I publish "too much." I'll be working on a scholarly book and a play and a translation at once, and they'll all get done, pretty quickly, within months, because I know I have to push hard to finish or I'll lose interest. As a result I've published something like 15 books, and have a hard drive full of unpublished and unproduced manuscripts as well. I can't understand people who spend fifteen years writing a single magnum opus. Don't they get BORED?

I do want to take issue with one unnamed reviewer, though:

"While I can agree with the point in this book that ADHD to some extent is situational (a hunter temperament within a farmer society) I have to raise obvious concerns about the outcome of any book not giving full credit to the metabolic issue and medications. ... It is an extremely painful experience for many parents of ADHD students to NOT provide medication or alternatives to medication while students continue to be hyperactive, unfocused, extremely distractible, while exercising little impulse control."

This sort of review is irresponsible. The reviewer clearly did not pay attention while reading Hartmann's book (easily distracted? ADD?). Hartmann stresses specifically that ADD/ADHD is painful, stressful, traumatic for many children, and that Ritalin or some other chemical intervention may in many cases be not only necessary but life-saving. But he also stresses that long-term Ritalin use is not the solution--that what children need is instruction in coping with ADD, in channeling their impulses in productive ways. In effect, what he is calling for is help for children with ADD/ADHD who need to learn to produce Ritalin analogs in their own brain chemistry, without external intervention.