ABSTRACT
The main focus of this volume is ‘Early Development and its Disturbances’ with special emphasis on the ‘psychoanalytic perspective on the development of Attention deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and other psychopathologies’. My assignment is to discuss ‘Coping with Children’s Temperament’ (Carey and McDevitt, 1995) as part of this complicated area. The main observation I would like to make is this: the current neglect of normal temperament differences has resulted in an overdiagnosis of CNS-based (central nervous system based) psychopathology and an overuse of medication. I shall propose that we must do better at recognizing children’s temperaments and other normal behaviours and must help parents to cope with them appropriately rather than ignoring or pathologizing them.
