Outrageous Love Letters to the Psy-disciplines: Rethinking Causal Models of ADHD and OCD Through Phenomenological Encounters with Bergson and Merleau-Ponty
Abstract
This thesis uses a first-person critical phenomenology perspective to explore psy- disciplinary research into perceptual experiences of time and space in people with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Firstly, I argue that a ‘deficit’ model of ADHD leads researchers to assume that ‘normal’ temporal perception aligns with an objective temporal reality. Using Bergson’s concept of duration, I suggest that researchers’ assumptions about temporal norms reinforce questionable beliefs about ADHD’s construct validity. Secondly, I argue that the conceptual framework of cognitive-behavioural models of OCD limit models’ ability to explain spatial changes to compulsions over time. I use Merleau-Ponty’s account of bodily movement to sketch an alternative theory of compulsions as habits. Adopting interdisciplinary methods to explore different epistemo-metaphysical understandings of time and space can allow both psy-professionals and people with mental disorders to reflect on and reconsider the concepts and logics underlying causal models and their corresponding formulations of disabled subjectivity.