the pathologizing can come from the person trying to understand their disorder (as people are wont to do). so... the person reads up on their disorder and what do they find? that it is defined as a fairly much life long affliction.

the way people categorize and view us and subsequently treat us has an impact on how we come to view ourself and how we come to act in the world. if people tell us that we are 'thoughtless and have no regard for others' then they are making it more likely that we will internalize that and that *as a result of being categorized in that way* we will conform to their expectations.

when we diagnose a kid with oppositional defiant disorder clinicians often relate to them as someone who will likely grow into antisocial personality disorder. what impact does that have on the way the clinicians relate to them and what results does that tend to have on the person who is thus categorized. for the most part... no good will come of it methinks.

the trouble with the medicalization model is that it considers that people have a disorder when (and only when) there is a DYSFUNCTION WITHIN THE INDIVIDUAL. the individual is thought to be the problem. if altering aspects of the persons environment were enough to alter their behaviour then the saying goes 'they weren't *really* disordered after all'. medicating the child doesn't tend to do a great deal with respect to solving the problem. indeed, medicating the child could even result in permanent developmental disability (we simply don't know the effect that stimulant medications etc have on the developing brain - we don't even know the long term effect that stimulant medications etc have on the developed brain). if only diagnoses were mere descriptions (as they are meant to be) and if only... they didn't tend to be self fulfilling prophecies with respect to course of symptoms over time...