ignore last two reviews, a good read - Rated 
Having read the book I find the previous two reviews hard to understand. Its as if they have read a different book to me. Nowhere did I find Timimi blaming the child or the parent, suggesting ADHD could be 'disciplined away', or trying to make anyone feel guilty about their difficulties. Quite the contrary, I believe Timimi demonstrates a lot of compassion and sensitivity, for example in the case histories. Far from this book being outdated and narrowminded it is the opposite, drawing on up to date literature from a wide variety of sources. Most importantly this book is alot more than just about ADHD. Timimi makes a scholarly analysis of cross cultural beliefs and practice around children's behaviour and behaviour problems, and suggests that modern Western culture has many features that should concern us. In this respect Timimi sees the current epidemic of ADHD as a symptom of something going wrong in our culture rather than across the increasingly vast swathe of children getting this diagnosis. My only criticisms are that Timimi tries to cover too much ground in this book and at times lapses uneccessarily into a more polemical style. That said I think this is an excellent book for both academics and lay readers alike, at times a real page turner.
Utter drivel. - Rated 
Timimi's arguments show a fundemental lack of understanding of not only ADHD but of mental health in general. What Timimi fails to grasp, or I suspect even understand is that it is impossible for people with ADHD to change the way they behave as this behavior is involentary, the same way someone with taurettes can exert very little control over their tics. The parts of the brain that deal with executive functions in non ADHD people simple don't work as well with ADHD sufferers. This means that the ability to regulate ones behavior, concentration and activity levels are under significantly less control. Instead he takes a rather outdated and more narrow minded (though more appealing and vitriolic to lay readers) stand and thinks that mental illhealth is something that can be 'disciplined' away!? I presume that is because if Tamimi can force himself to concentrate then so should everyone else.
Further more the book is poorly referenced and draws from findings so wide that the cease to be relevant to the disorder while completely ignoring an overwhelming body of evidence and case studys that point to the contary.
The last thing a child with ADHD needs is more guilt and shame poured onto them from people who should know better. If a child has ADHD then they will already have enough guilt and shame to deal with.
I know this as I was one of these so called 'naughty' boys...
Very Unhelpful - Rated
Another text trying to blame the child and the parents for a medical condition. It is now widely accepted that ADHD is a physiological condition, and books like this do nothing to support those who have to live with it. If your child has been diagnosed as ADHD, the best thing you can do is not to read this book.
a profound analysis of a largely manufactured problem - Rated 
Timimi, an Iraqi child psychiatrist, argues that most children diagnosed with ADHD don't have much wrong with them except that those teachers and parents responsible for bringing them up are like rabbits caught in the headlights of too much political correctness and the medicalisation of our understanding of child development. He believes many so-called ADHD children are simply 'naughty boys', (significantly most are boys) whose parents are afraid to discipline them and too busy or distracted to engage with them in the development of their imaginative life. Often indeed he feels there is nothing wrong with these boys at all, that schools categorize them as ill to save themselves the bother of relating to their normal behaviour. He analyses attitudes to child development in many different cultures and looks at how western economic/political hegemony influences pharmaceutical/medical dominance in what should be therapeutic approaches and in educational practice. He also gives many examples of his own practice of a much more down to earth approach which he has found successful. As a psychiatric social worker this is one of the most profound critiques of western mental health practice I have read.
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