A psychoanalytic perspective on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Psychoanalysts have tended to view the diagnosis of AD/HD either with skepticism or as a contraindication to analytic treatment. The author reviews the history of this puzzling diagnostic entity, which is estimated to account for up to fifty percent of child referrals, and suggests that a psychoanalytic perspective on the underlying disturbance in ego functioning helps to clarify the nature of the symptom picture. Whatever the etiology, which may be compound, she suggests that psychoanalytic treatment, most often in conjunction with psychopharmacological therapy, can address the core disturbance in ego integration that creates the familiar triad of inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity.