ADHD - An Illustrated historical overview

"In the course of my life, I have been consulted in three cases of the total perversion of the moral faculties. One of them was in a young man, the second in a young woman, both of Virginia, and the third was in the daughter of a citizen of Philadelphia. The last was addicted to every kind of mischief. Her wickedness had no intervals while she was awake, except when she was kept busy in some steady and difficult employment. In all these cases of innate, preternatural moral depravity, there is probably an original defective organization in those parts of the body, which are occupied by the moral faculties of the mind." Rush, 1812, p. 359f. Some more observations A t about the same time, in 1812, the multi-talented American Benjamin Rush (1745–1813), among whose achievements was the signing of the Declaration of Independence , added his observations on uncontrollable children and adults and speculated on the “defective organization in those parts of the body which are occupied by the moral faculties of the mind.”