ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses outcomes of evaluations at the Hyperactivity-Learning Disabilities clinic, describes some implications for medical practice, and suggests some areas for further research. It focuses on the medicalization of deviant behavior and the sociology of hyperactivity. Although there may be some humanitarian benefits from the medicalization of deviant behavior, there are also important sociological ramifications. These include: the problem of expert control, medical social control, the individualization of social problems, and the depolitization of deviant behavior. A social system approach to hyperactivity is proposed as a contrast to the medical-clinical approach. Behavior is seen as meaningful in the context of the situation in which it occurs, especially in the light of discrepant reports of deviance from various social systems in which the child operates. Both the medicalization of deviant behavior and sociology of hyperactivity are fertile areas for future sociological research.
