The Divergent Mind: Reframing ADHD

The Deeper Thinking Podcast

For those who have never quite fit the frame—and those learning to honor that as a form of knowing.

What if ADHD isn’t a disorder, but a divergent pattern of attention shaped by relational intelligence, rhythmic perception, and ethical sensitivity? In this extended episode, we reimagine ADHD not as a clinical failure but as a philosophical lens—one that refracts the pace, priorities, and punitive designs of the dominant world.

Rather than seeing ADHD as an attention deficit, we explore it as a time-based difference. Russell Barkley frames it as a struggle with internal time management. Gabor Maté connects it to relational wounding. We bring in Bessel van der Kolk and Stephen Porges on trauma and the polyvagal system, and Bonnie Badenoch and Pat Ogden on somatic processing and regulation.

From Devon Price’s critique of productivity myths to Tricia Hersey’s rest-based justice, and Saidiya Hartman’s notion of errant movement, we reflect on how refusal, stillness, and shame alchemize into new maps of self. Lauren Berlant and Silvia Federici remind us that bodies out of sync with capital are not broken—they’re prophetic.

This is not a diagnostic guide. It’s a meditation on rhythm, relationality, and redesigning our worlds to honor minds that don’t flatten to fit. It asks not “How do we fix ADHD?” but “What might a society look like if it made room for it?”

Reflections

Some of the questions that surfaced along the way:

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To be divergent is not to be broken. It is to be carrying a rhythm the world has yet to hear.

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