Crítica à medicalização da vida escolar a partir da análise dos determinantes diagnósticos de TDAH em laudos de estudantes da educação básica

Abstract

The present work aims to contribute to the discussion on the implications of the alarming increase in the incidence of diagnoses of learning disorders in Brazil, especially Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder - ADHD. According to the disorder's official website, ADHD is the most common disorder in children and adolescents referred to specialized services. The present study is based on the theoretical framework of the presuppositions of historical-cultural psychology, which overcome the adaptive and pathologizing conceptions that support the medicalization of educational processes. This research seeks to answer the following question: What factors have been the determinants for the diagnosis of ADHD in schoolchildren? The specific objectives are: a) to investigate the criteria that led to the diagnosis of ADHD; b) to analyze the conception of human development that subsidizes the analyzed reports; c) analyze the extent to which the diagnosis and treatment indicated involve concrete interpersonal relationships in the child's life beyond medication. The study has a qualitative and documentary nature, and aims to analyze clinical reports, containing the diagnosis of ADHD - Attention Deficit Disorder - in basic education students, with the objective of identifying the diagnostic determinants of ADHD in basic education. Ten reports filed by the participating Secretariats were selected. The analysis of documents is based on the methodology of content analysis. The analysis of the data explains the evident limits of attributing learning difficulties to medical treatment, given that these professionals do not have any domain over the specificities of the area of education. It is also important to note that all the reports collected for the research reaffirm the theoretical assumptions adopted in the work in question, that the diagnoses of ADHD have been given superficially and indiscriminately, labeling human beings and objectifying them. The few referrals described by the reports point to the school as the main responsible for referring the children to neurologists, psychiatrists and psychologists to give their assessment of the child's “inadequate” behavior in the classroom. In the reports analyzed, most professionals propose superficial guidelines for the school, without taking into account the specificity of teaching work or the reproduction of excluding and marginalizing assumptions of capitalist society in interpersonal relationships and concrete practices that permeate the daily life of educational institutions. Therefore, it is worth noting that the studies of Marxist psychology are fundamental for the unveiling of the exploratory and oppressive logic of capital, denaturalizing the stigmas and standardizations that contribute to the maintenance of the status quo and signaling the need to build a new sociability based on fair social relations, egalitarian and humanizing.