Volume 1. No. 5 |
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July 11, 2017 |
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Abstract: This is a review by a lay individual
on the fringes of Autism, not used to academic styles of literature or
deeply read on the topic. In effect the type of individual I feel the book
is aimed at.
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Review of Re-Thinking Autism: Diagnosis, Identity and Equality (Timimi,
Mallett Runswick-Cole Eds.)
Why review this
book when the closest "qualification" to justify it is a low grade A level pass in
Biology? To myself I reply, why not? Perhaps my lack of tuition and expertise
will give me a viewpoint unsullied by some of the undignified scholastic
squabbling that this work seems to invoke.
Well here goes. The Book is entitled Rethinking Autism: diagnosing
identity and equality and is made up of a series of essays that seem to
be concerned with more than just the strict limits of autism and, to my
untrained eye, seem to refer to autistic spectrum disorders, which is probably
the fault of the title, not the essayists. In general, the articles are well
referenced, well written and readable.
To some, this might render them unacademic but
perhaps the tendency to discuss individual cases from a narrative viewpoint is
the standard expected from the field. My desire for true scientific understanding
lies in the use of the specific to illustrate the general, not the general
being deduced from the general. What is wrong with statistics? The underlying
premise that because an individual has been damaged by a diagnosis or
misdiagnosis of "autism", everyone is in the same position, is highly suspect.
I may be being
harsh but is it unjustified that is debatable? .My distrust goes back to the
general introduction which makes the claim to be the "first edited
collection that is firmly located in the previously non-existent field of
critical autism. Echoes of vain glory I invent a name and boast to be the first
to use it". Could I invent a field of critical tax studies and claim to
be the first critical analyst of government fiscal policy? The introduction
goes downhill when it claims that critical autism studies are concerned with
two questions: "1. Is the diagnosis of autism
scientifically valid? and 2. Is the diagnosis of
Autism useful in the lives of people so labelled, their families and allies?"
As for 1, first define Autism as a description of a set of observable behaviour patterns. It certainly exists and which of the
very many diverse attempts to explain it are unscientific - surely not all of
them? If so, how have our brave pioneers risen above the whole mass of
psychological ineptitude that their statement to be valid must presuppose?
Statement 2 is not as bad and can be read as - are modern diagnostics resulting
in treatment that is ameliorative, curative or socially damaging? This seems to
be a fair question - perhaps they should have invented another new field of
critical psychiatric practice studies?
A totalitarian
subtext then begins to emerge: "The authors in this text seek to examine
the pseudo-scientific claims upon which autism is deemed to be a biological
disorder. That is to say Our brave pioneers have scaled Olympus and sent down
the diktat to mere mortals that any one that disagrees with them is
pseudo-scientific. If autism is not nature as they say, it must be nurture, so
as a pseudoscientist, if autism is not biological, it
must be conditioned and as such could be cured by electric shocks or near
drowning, or as the American apologists for intensive interrogation say this
is not torture. As a mere lay person, I would posit that there are both
inherent and experiential elements that lead to the definition and diagnosis of
autism.
Thats enough of
my own demagoguery. Does the book do what it says on the cover, "Rethink
Autism"? Not really, as it mistakes criticism for critique. The individual
essays are in themselves worthwhile but when strapped together like five pencils, are
still weaker than the six inch nail of orthodoxy which can
be hammered deep into the hard timber of peer review without it
shattering. Read this book and draw your own conclusions. Perhaps it
should have been given another title: "Contemporary diagnosis of Autism
can damage your kids".
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