The "Hunter in a Farmer's World" metaphor was first used in the original 1993 version of "ADD: A Different Perception" to characterize the life situations in which those with ADHD often found themselves.
The metaphor is now popularly used to refer to subsequent Thom Hartmann books many of which address the ongoing wounding of our children by those who still portray ADHD/ADD as a disease. "ADD: A Different Perception " has recently been called a "Just So Story," "mind candy," and "unreputable" by the editor and owner of a privately published subscription newsletter. The editorialist's surprisingly harsh front-page commentary is in response to a book that was foremost a story told by a father (Thom Hartmann) who wanted to find an alternative to what he considered an emotionally destructive story told to his son about the way his son's brain functioned! Although initially flattered by all the recent attention Dr. Barkley has shown the earliest version of the Hunter/Farmer hypothesis, we find it tragic, self-serving, and blatantly unscientific that he would presented it only in part, and that the part he'd choose was significantly misrepresented.
"ADD: A Different Perception" provided a more feasible (and substantially more accurate) reinterpretation of the widespread fable used by those who wish to depict ADHD persons as "deficient" and "disordered." In subsequent Thom Hartmann books and articles, more attention was directed toward building the skills and self-esteem of ADHD children and adults. These efforts have been widely embraced by many, but aggressively opposed by those in the ADHD circuit who responded to our call to keep ADHD children's egos intact with, for example, Barkley's Marie Antoinette-like retort , "If feeling good is the clinical goal, then why not just give them heroin ?" In contrast to such unfortunate and derisive rhetoric, the Hunter/Farmer hypothesis maintains that self-esteem is not a drug used to pacify but a sword that can be used to fight off the evils of despondency and self-hatred, and to provide hope for ADHD children.
The Hunter/Farmer hypothesis presumes that, irrelevant of where one places on the ADHD continuum, one not only has weakness to be compensated for, but also ADHD-related strengths that we must nurture. Contrarily, Barkley and those who consider ADHD to have no value whatsoever promote an absolute acceptance of the "disorder" perspective and a total reliance on compensatory or defensive strategies, offering "authoritative" advice about how to "take charge" of such children. Their disorder perspective assumes that there is one, single, superior (non-ADHD) way of behaving and being in the world, in all times and cultures, and that all other humans not so endowed are defective, lack creativity and have reduced intelligence (Barkley, Goldstein, etc.)
Barkley's recommendation that ADHDers be authoritatively controlled and taught to avoid pursuing new opportunities for themselves (stimulation-seeking/risk-taking), however, is like telling an entrepreneur to quit looking for new market and business opportunities, an inventor to stop trying to see how things work (or how they could work better), or a hockey player to stop trying to scoring goals! Some ADHDers might be able to find contentment under the scourge of such defeatist (and possibly self-fulfilling) prophecies, but not without giving up many of their lives' hopes, aspirations, and goals along the way. The debate concerning whether ADHD is a disorder or a difference has considerable implications, not only for ADHD research, but also for those adults and children along the ADHD continuum who deserve more than a life spent only meeting the minimum threshold of their real potential.
Like the perpetually dueling Smothers Brothers, with their constant refrain of, "Mom always liked you best," the world of ADHD research and speculation often seems to devolve into acrimony around whose theory is most or least supportable (or which brother is superior: the ADHD one or the over-focused one). Unfortunately, in this process one of the early causalities has been accuracy. Because of Barkley's newsletter's wide circulation, it seemed important to provide readers a rebuttal, and to correct at least a few of his mischaracterizations of the genesis, reasoning, and details of the Hunter/Farmer metaphor.
