Chloe Clair L&S Social Sciences
Time Blind or Time Proof: ADHD and Alternate Temporalities
Individuals with ADHD perceive time differently than individuals without ADHD. These differences, often referred to as “time-blindness” symptoms, are clinically described as impediments to “normal” functioning, interfering with individuals’ ability to manage structured activities such as work and school. This discourse pathologizes neurodiverse individuals’ experiences and reproduces ontologies around the “proper” use of and relationship to time. Unstructured activities such as art-making shed light on the changing of temporalities for individuals with ADHD in a way that is not solely or not viewed at all as a deficit to functioning. While existing research identifies activities that may exacerbate or reduce time-blindness symptoms, less is known about individuals’ subjective experience of time-blindness itself and whether this term appropriately captures individuals’ with ADHD relationship to time. My research will critically investigate the subjective experience of time among individuals with ADHD, moving away from a dualistic (positive/negative) evaluation of time-blindness “symptoms” to instead unpack a broader spectrum of felt experiences.
Message To Sponsor
In a world where the mind is co-evolving with technology, social media, and others states of worldly change and destruction, it is becoming increasingly important to study psychology from an anthropological lens. By taking this interdisciplinary perspective into account, we can begin to deconstruct a framework built into capitalism which pathologises and erases experiences of disability. Thank you for supporting me in this goal and allowing me to have conversations with individuals about time.