ABSTRACT
Each referral for psychological assessment embodies unique individuals and circumstances: There is the referring clinician or institution, the psychologist carrying out the assessment, and the “audience” who will receive the report. Bringing a psychoanalytic mindset to such an encounter enriches the assessment experience for all parties involved—and enhances its diagnostic utility. In this chapter, the chapter brings together intertwining threads of individuals and circumstances in the setting of an increasingly frequent neuropsychological assessment query, one that is posed across the age span for children, adolescents, and adults: Does this person have an attention-deficit disorder (ADHD; American Psychiatric Association, 2013)?. Psychologists who move beyond a descriptive approach—who instead carry out in-depth assessments—face the challenge of translating psychoanalytic insights about intertwined neurocognitive and personality data into a language that is at once accurate and understandable to their audience.
