Childhoods at the Margin: The Meaning of Diagnosis in Identity Formation

Torres K.M. · Letras (Peru) (2026) · DOI: 10.30920/letras.97.145.8

Resumen

This article examines how the value attributed to diagnoses of mental disorders in childhood affects the formation of children’s identities. We argue that the significance assigned to an ADHD diagnosis is embedded in an adult-centered perspective aimed at regulating children’s behavior in psychological, physical, and moral terms. In the absence of adequate support structures involving families and educators, such diagnoses may lead to various forms of injustice toward children. The article is structured in three parts. The first critically examines the notion of a reliable diagnosis in relation to the distinction between health and disease developed within the psy sciences during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, focusing on the debate between naturalism and normativism. The second part analyzes social normality and normativity within an adult-centered context that conceives the child as an agent with limited agency, thereby generating testimonial, hermeneutical, affective, and motor injustices toward children diagnosed with ADHD. Finally, the third part offers a phenomenological analysis of the perceptual experience of children with ADHD, drawing on Merleau-Ponty and Canguilhem, in order to reorient diagnostic reception toward an appreciation of divergence, perceptual multimodality, and the lived experience of being a child.

Instituciones: Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos