Scattered: How Attention Deficit Disorder Originates and What You Can Do About It

by Gabor Maté

Counterwill is an automatic resistance put up by a human being with an incompletely developed sense of self, a reflexive and unthinking opposition to the will of the other. It is a natural but immature resistance arising from the fear of being controlled. Counterwill arises in anyone who has not yet developed a mature and conscious will of her own. Although it can remain active throughout life, normally it makes its most dramatic appearance during the toddler phase and again in adolescence. In many people, and in the vast majority of children with ADD, it becomes entrenched as an ever-present force and may remain powerfully active well into adulthood. It immensely complicates personal relationships, school performance and job or career success. Counterwill has many manifestations. The parent of a child with attention deficit disorder will be familiar with them. Most obviously, it is expressed in verbal resistance—“I don’t have to,” “You can’t make me,” the constant arguing and countering whatever the parent proposes, the ubiquitous “You are not the boss of me.” Like a psychological immune system, counterwill functions to keep out anything that does not originate within the child herself It is present when the four-year-old puts both hands over his ears to keep out the parent’s voice, or when the older child pins up an angry Keep Out sign on her door. It is visible in the body language of the adolescent and teenager: the sullen look and the shrugged shoulder. Its signs driv...