The Culture of Emotional and Cognitive Lability in the U.S.

New York University, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

9973154 Martin This project involves research by a cultural anthropologist from Princeton University into the recent shift of opinion in American culture about the cognitive or emotional lability associated with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHP) and manic-depression. The project investigates the change in popular culture from seeing such lability as a defect towards seeing it as a talent that is adaptive in the contemporary social and economic environment of intense global competition. The need for rapid and flexible adjustment to changing conditions in the workplace, schools and communities may be supporting the more positive views of aspects of ADHD-type personalities. Using historical and ethnographic methods, the researcher will investigate these issues in neuroscience research laboratories, psychiatric clinics, patient support groups, schools and worker training programs, and pharmaceutical corporations. The research will take place in three sites: Orange county, California, Baltimore County, Maryland, and central New Jersey to cover a broad range of American society. By addressing the changing meaning of mental illness and disability in the context of other social and cultural processes that are changing, the research will contribute to making these highly stigmatized conditions seem more ordinary and understandable. This should lead to greater tolerance for people who suffer from the illness, as well as greater understanding of how the image of an "ideal person" is changing in contemporary American culture.