Re-Thinking Autism: Diagnosis, Identity and Equality

by Katherine Runswick-Cole (Editor), Rebecca Mallett (Editor), Sami Timimi (Editor)

Challenging existing approaches to autism that limit, and sometimes damage, the individuals who attract and receive the label, this book questions the lazy prejudices and assumptions that can surround autism as a diagnosis in the 21st Century.


Arguing that autism can only be understood through examining 'it' as a socially or culturally produced phenomenon, the authors offer a critique of the medical model that has produced a perpetually marginalising approach to autism, and explain the contradictions and difficulties inherent in existing attitudes. They examine and dispute the scientific validity of diagnosis and 'treatment', asking whether autism actually exists at the biological level, and question the value of diagnosis in the lives of those labelled with autism. The book recognises that there are no easy answers but encourages engagement with these essential questions, and looks towards service provision and practice that moves beyond a reliance on all-encompassing labels.


This unique contribution to the growing field of critical autism studies brings together authors from clinical psychiatry, clinical and community psychology, social sciences, disability studies, education and cultural studies, as well as those with personal experiences of autism. It is essential and challenging reading for anyone with a personal, professional or academic interest in 'autism'.

Genres: Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Psychology, Disability, Disability Studies, Nonfiction

336 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 5, 2016

Reviews

[Catana · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a critique (or collection of critiques) of current understandings of autism, the book contained some approaches that didn't interest me, and failed to discuss questions for which I hoped for some insights. One book can't please everyone, though, and it did contain a great deal of useful information.

[Joanne Mango · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very thorough and thought provoking book about the value, legitimacy and ethics of autism diagnosis given the power and potentials that this has on an individual and their family. Whilst acknowledging that there may be benefits in having a diagnosis as a way of understanding self and experiences with others there are also risks that it may be harmful in terms of limiting expectations, pathologising 'normal' if perhaps variant behaviour, and failing to more adequately hold you account individuals and systems that may have been harmful to this with a diagnosis. I found it a really interesting book, particularly thinking about autistic experience as a relational one - that it is potentially family and late capitalist systems that are themselves disordered.