Part One, comprised of the first five chapters, is an examination of the nature of attention deficit disorder.

Chapter One, So Much Soup And Garbage Can, reports my own diagnosis with ADD, briefly introduces the thesis I will put forward, and shows something of the painful emotional realities accompanying ADD.

Chapter Two, Many Roads Not Travelled, explains how ADD is diagnosed and describes the traits and behaviours associated with it.

Chapter Three, We Could All Go Crazy, argues ADD is not a disorder in the medical sense of the term. Its characteristics are on the continuum of normal human traits which create a problem only when they get to the point of interfering significantly with one’s life.

Chapter Four, A Conflictual Marriage, is a case example of how ADD traits, in this instance the father’s, do create problems for the whole family. It also shows how tensions generated in the parents’ relationship can affect the atmosphere in which the children spend their formative years. The family is my own, the couple my wife and I.

Chapter Five, Forgetting To Remember The Future, introduces the idea that attention deficit disorder represents not illness but a failure of psychological and neurophysiological development. The brain circuits that remain immature are those of emotional intelligence and self-regulation..

Part Two explains how the human brain develops, how heredity and the environment may affect its development, and under what conditions complete maturation of important brain circuits may be impaired.

Chapter Six, Different Worlds: Heredity And The Environments Of Childhood, is itself in two parts. The first portion shows the weaknesses of the evidence for ADD being largely an inherited, genetically transmitted condition. There is definitely an important genetic component, but its importance is frequently exaggerated. The second portion investigates how even children in the same family do not share the same formative environment.

Chapter Seven, Emotional Allergies: ADD And Sensitivity, argues that the inherited trait children with ADD do have in common is a heightened sensitivity to emotional stimuli--and often to physical ones as well. This makes them more vulnerable to environmental influences.

Chapter Eight, A Surrealistic Choreography, presents the astounding findings of modern neuroscientific research as regards the development of the human brain. The environment minutely influences how the circuits of the brain are formed.

Chapter Nine, Attunement And Attachment, discusses the conditions necessary for the maturation in the brain of the circuits of emotional intelligence, the circuits impaired in ADD.

Chapter Ten, The Footprints Of Infancy, is about the circuits in the gray matter of the brain that have failed to develop fully, and about how the environment may directly affect the chemistry in the portions of the brain implicated in ADD.

Part Three is about the environmental roots of attention deficit disorder in family and society, a topic first touched upon in Chapter Four, about my own family.

Chapter Eleven, An Utter Stranger, tells the story of the first year and a half of my own life, the period most critical in the development of the brain circuits discussed in the previous chapters.

Chapter Twelve, Stories Within Stories, presents what I have found out about the families of ADD adults and children who have come to me for help, and presents also what the research evidence has shown about ADD families.

Chapter Thirteen, This Frenetic Society, argues that ultimately the environmental roots of ADD can be traced to socioeconomic trends in industrialized society which have virtually fragmented the extended family and have also stressed the nuclear family nearly to the breaking point. Popular culture, too, has increasingly come to celebrate a short attention span.

Part Four explores the psychological meaning of ADD traits.

Chapter Fourteen: Severed Thoughts And Flibbety-Gibbety: Tuning Out And Distractibility, describes how the tuning out in ADD first arises as a form of emotional defence, and how the inattention and distractibility are also intimately connected with the individual’s emotional life.

Chapter Fifteen, The Pendulum Swings: Hyperactivity, Lethargy And Shame, shows that hyperactivity begins as a normal developmental stage in which, under certain conditions, the child gets stuck. It’s seeming opposite, the lethargy of many inattentive children and adults, is also a matter of normal development gone awry.

Part Five: The next nine chapters are devoted to the question of how to promote the healing process in the ADD child and teenager. Although the following part of the book will discuss healing in the adult more specifically, ADD adults are advised to read Part Five carefully. It is meant also to help them understand their own personalities, as well as the conditions necessary for the further maturation of their impaired ADD circuits.

Chapter Sixteen, It Ain’t Over ‘Til Its Over: Unconditional Positive Regard discusses the scientific basis for optimism as regards the development of new, better functioning brain circuits in later childhood and even in the adult years. It describes the very first condition loving parents need to provide their children to promote that development: warm, secure acceptance.

Chapter Seventeen, Wooing The Child, suggests techniques to help parents build the relationship in which children can find the required sense of security.

Chapter Eighteen, Like Fish In The Sea, advises parents to take care of their own emotional states and the parental relationship, these forming the invisible psychological ground on which the development of the sensitive ADD child must rest.

Chapter Nineteen, Just Looking For Attention, discusses some damaging myths about ADD children, including the misconception that they are "just" looking for attention. If, indeed, they are looking for attention, we must inquire why.

Chapter Twenty, The Defiant Ones: Oppositionality, explains what is really behind the trait parents and adults find most frustrating in children with attention deficit disorder: their almost automatic resistance to authority, their so-called stubborn and wilful natures. Fortunately, we find, it is not a fixed trait at all. It is only an unconscious reaction, called counterwill, which parents can learn to defuse.

Chapter Twenty-One, Defusing Counterwill. In which parents learn to do so.

Chapter Twenty-Two, My Marshmallow Caught Fire: Motivation And Autonomy. ADD children tend to be unmotivated. Much of what parents are told about motivating children is self-defeating. This chapter discusses how to promote true motivation.

Chapter Twenty-Three, Trusting The Child, Trusting Oneself: ADD In the Classroom. Principles and guidelines for helping the ADD student in the school setting.

Chapter Twenty-Four, Always On My Case: Teenagers, is about the special problems involved in dealing with ADD teenagers. What works, and what does not.

Part Six is concerned with helping ADD adults understand themselves, some of the problems they face, and the ways they can create conditions for their own self-development.

Chapter Twenty-Five: Justifying One’s Existence: Self-Esteem And The ADD Adult. Low self-esteem is the greatest burden and obstacle confronting adults with attention deficit disorder. It leads to harsh self-judgements and a chronic inability to say no.

Chapter Twenty-Six, Memories Are Made Of This, shows that while adults with ADD may have poor recall, their neurological circuits are imprinted with infallible memories that silently influence their feelings and their behaviour.

Chapter Twenty-Seven, Remembering What Didn’t Happen: The ADD Relationship. People with ADD have a notoriously difficult time with emotional intimacy. This chapter explores why, and analyses some of the relationship problems these adults may have.

Chapter Twenty-Eight, Moses Saved By The Angel: Self-Parenting (I). The topic of this chapter of how the adult with ADD can learn to take care of herself psychologically.

Chapter Twenty-Nine, The Physical And Spiritual Environment: Self-Parenting (II), describes the physical conditions needed for self-development, as well as the importance of creative expression and spiritual work.

Chapter Thirty, In Place Of Tears And Sorrow: Addictions And The ADD Brain, explores the nature of addiction in attention deficit disorder and the need to confront it, offering the author as a case example.

Part Seven ties up some loose ends.

Chapter Thirty-One, I Never Saw The Trees: What Medications Can And Cannot Do explains the possible benefits of medications in the treatment of ADD and gives some guidelines for their use. It puts forward the possibly radical principle that not even young children ought to be made to take medications without their autonomous consent.

Chapter Thirty-Two, What It Means To Attend, expresses some parting thoughts on the nature of giving attention and on some of the long-term challenges we must continue to face.

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