There's no doubt that stimulant drugs work to improve attentiveness. The catch is that research has shown that stimulants help anyone focus, whether or not they have symptoms of ADHD.[...] With this in mind, I can't help but wonder whether we are actually treating a childhood mental illness with these medications or instead are allowing the drugs to transform our very image of childhood.

Instead of seeing ADHD-type behaviors as part of the spectrum of normal childhood that most kids eventually grow out of, or as responses to bumps or rough patches in a child's life, we cluster these behaviors into a discrete (and chronic) "illness" or "mental health condition" with clearly defined boundaries. And we are led to believe that this "illness" is rooted in the child's genetic makeup and requires treatment with psychiatric medication.

Our egalitarian culture has encouraged us to be friends to our children rather than authority figures, and we hesitate to say no for fear of losing that friendship.

In our pharmed culture, mischievous boys like Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn would not be seen as active, adventure-loving kids who skipped school now and then because they were bored in a classroom that offered them little of interest. Society today would label them "mentally disabled" and give them drugs to make them behave like "normal" children.