(recommended article) We are not all on the spectrum now

[Guest guest]

Liked this one a lot, and found it very thought-provoking and well written.

Enjoy (or not),

~CJ

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We are not all on the spectrum now

" Is autism a disorder? Is autism an identity? If you had asked me these

questions a few years ago, before I became involved with the Autism

Ethics Group at King’s College London, then my answer would have been a

clear ‘yes’ and ‘no’ respectively. Clearly, autism is most usefully

understood as a disorder. And clearly, it is not useful to understand

autism as an identity. "

more...

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/12369/

[Guest guest]

This was particularly excellent:

" I think the reason we are often reluctant to call autism a disorder is because

‘disorder’ is a pejorative word – there is order, and then there is something

that falls short of order. Likewise, pathology as a whole is a field that

involves pejorative medical judgement. It’s the discipline of finding out what’s

wrong with you. This fact seems to cause great vexation nowadays.

Yet, having something wrong with your health is not the same thing as having

something wrong with you as a person. In other words, medical and moral

judgement are separable. The problem of stigma actually arises not, as is

sometimes thought, from the exercise of pejorative medical judgement, but rather

from a failure to distinguish and understand medical and moral judgement. "

Bingo -the author totally nailed that.

[Guest guest]

When people complain about " identity politics " , what they usually seem to mean

is: I have no intention of shutting up and listening to other people about what

their lives are like. I'm less interested in what the author, whatever his

diagnosis, has to say because he doesn't seem to be listening to the people he's

talking about.

Re: (recommended article) We are not all on

the spectrum now

This was particularly excellent:

" I think the reason we are often reluctant to call autism a disorder is because

'disorder' is a pejorative word - there is order, and then there is something

that falls short of order. Likewise, pathology as a whole is a field that

involves pejorative medical judgement. It's the discipline of finding out what's

wrong with you. This fact seems to cause great vexation nowadays.

Yet, having something wrong with your health is not the same thing as having

something wrong with you as a person. In other words, medical and moral

judgement are separable. The problem of stigma actually arises not, as is

sometimes thought, from the exercise of pejorative medical judgement, but rather

from a failure to distinguish and understand medical and moral judgement. "

Bingo -the author totally nailed that.