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A Very Childish Moral Panic: Ritalin

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Abstract

This paper examines some of the moral panics around hyperactive children, the construction of Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder, and the lure of Ritalin in turning kids identified as “at risk” into successful, productive individuals. Through a historicization of the child as a psychiatric subject, we try to demonstrate Ritalin's part in the uneven development of modern trends towards the pathologization of everyday life, a developing continuum between normality and abnormality, and an emphasis on the malleability of children and the importance of environment in their upbringing. We conclude that Ritalin is a part of modernity's project of turning people into individuals—in this case, a kind of US transcendence fantasy—which, along with discourses and institutions, promises to transform young subjects and biocosmetically alter their futures.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cultural Studies and Cultural Policy, Department of Cinema Studies, New York University, New York, NY

    Toby Miller (Professor)

  2. University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, Champaign, IL

    Marie Claire Leger (MD/PhD student)

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Miller, T., Leger, M.C. A Very Childish Moral Panic: Ritalin. Journal of Medical Humanities 24, 9–33 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021301614509

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