Background: The notion of neurodevelopmental disorder emerged at the beginning of the 21st century and quickly became a widely used concept in child and adolescent psychiatry. It reassures us about the etiology of mental disorders and has a certain theoretical consistency. However, it raises many questions: clinical, sociological, and epistemological.

Methods:  Historical review of the concept of neurodevelopmental disorder followed by an epistemological perspective.

Results: From a clinical point of view, the most severe forms of ASD, ADHD, intellectual disabilities, or specific learning disorders are indeed compatible with the definition of an NDD. However, this is no more true for the mildest forms of these phenotypes. Psychiatrists and society accept now that autism corresponds to a different way of existing, the intensity of which can vary in important proportions so that the same word “autism” can be used to label very different children. For some of them, invoking a problem of “biological maturation of the CNS” raises ethical concerns.

Conclusions: In psychiatry, there is a very sad history of pathologizing psychological differences. We should pay more attention to how our societies receive the concepts we develop.

Keywords: Identity, neurodevelopmental disorders, autism, psychiatric diagnosis, brain mind problem