Let’s turn to Hollywood, our secular High Priesthood for guidance. There we can actually discover some gems of wisdom to offer as role models and heroes for our struggling children, teens, and adults with ADHD.
Take four Hollywood feature films: Jerry Maguire, starring Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding; Erin Brockovich, starring Julia Roberts; Pushing Tin, starring John Cusack, Angelina Jolie, and Billy Bob Thornton; and Good Morning, Vietnam, starring Robin Williams.
Each of these films depicts ADHD characters in a realistic yet heroic context, using the dominant Hollywood plot structure of the hero’s journey. In each of these films, a symptom of ADHD that is often viewed from the “deficit model” is transformed by the hero into a “strength”.
For example, transforming hyperactivity, viewed as a deficit, into hyperfocus–a strength, is shown in Jerry Maguire, as the hunting behaviors of sports agents and athletes, shown by Cruise and Cuba Gooding, is portrayed with intensity and humor, and portrayed as a good coping mechanism and survival trait.
In Pushing Tin, starring John Cusack, Angelina Jolie, and Billy Bob Thornton, Cusack stars as an extremely hyperactive and high-functioning air traffic controller based in New York City.
From the opening sequence, Cusack brilliantly portrays a high functioning, highly competent professional, whose hyperactivity and impulsive nature rivals any 10-year-old boy addicted to video games, but channeled into a career that is both rewarding and rewarded.
In Erin Brockovich, Julia Roberts stars as a dysfunctional and impulsive single mother, who discovers her path by fighting for the rights of others, transforming argumentativeness (a typical ADHD symptom), into a passion for justice on behalf of the underdog.
Brockovich’s impulsivity is evident from an early sequence, when she blurts out obscenities in court while being cross-examined by the opposing attorney in a personal injury tort lawsuit. She’s the plaintiff, attempting to win damages for a bogus car injury that she claims caused extensive neck injury.
After her outburst, the next scene shows her in the court hallway with her patient, long-suffering attorney (who later becomes her mentor), and while he attempts to calm her down and offer the wise counsel of moderation, she continues her meltdown about the opposing attorney.
Clearly this woman has a strong capacity for moral outrage, and the transformation occurs when she channels this energy into a cause beyond her own self-interest.
Finally one could not allude to ADHD and film stars without mentioning Robin Williams. In nearly all of his films, from Mrs. Doubtfire to Dead Poets Society, he captures the power of the ADHD personality, transforming impulsivity and recklessness into liberating humor and the care and nurturing of others.
My favorite of these journeys is Good Morning Vietnam, a film based on the true story of an Armed Forces radio disc jockey serving in Vietnam. One of the more challenging aspects of ADHD is the desire for constant attention, which may look like, but is distinct from classical narcissism.
Channeled effectively, one sees this essential trait in the success stories of stand-up comics, actors, musicians, and other performers. The key developmental struggle is to transform the energy from a narcissistic focus on the “self”, what Lenny Bruce termed the, “look at me, Ma” syndrome, into an energy connected to universal principles.
Of all the comedians and actors who embody this developmental struggle, Robin Williams is quintessential, and in Good Morning Vietnam, both his hyperkinetic energy and the necessity to go deeper, to give of oneself to others, are on full display.
