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The trouble with neurodiversity : etiologies, normativity, and the autistic struggle for identity

University of British Columbia

Scientific research into the etiology of autism has lead to an explosion in proposed agents implicated in the development of autism over the past 70 years. Genetics, neurotoxins, vaccinations, viral infections, parenting practices, neurological abnormalities, among others, have been proposed to explain what increasingly appears to be a heterogeneous and overdetermined condition. These proposed etiologies and the treatments they suggest pose a peculiar problem for the neurodiversity movement, an activist group of autistics and nonautistics who hope to promote a positive understanding of autism. In broad terms, the neurodiversity movement opposes cure-oriented research and activism typical of the scientific community and mainstream autism advocacy organizations. They hope to counter this trend by promoting autism as a positive identity – a normal human variation, rather than a pathology. The tension between these two modes of thought provides a rich terrain for exploring the possibilities of identity formation even as human behaviour increasingly falls under the rubric of medical science. The scientific research discussed in this thesis simultaneously constructs and is constructed by an understanding of autism as a pathology, and in so doing challenges the claims of the neurodiversity movement both directly and indirectly: reproductive technologies and proposed treatments for autism force parents to make judgements about the worth of autistic persons, for example. This thesis draws on literature from bioethics, philosophy of medicine, and disability studies to situate both the neurodiversity movement and the scientific community in debates about normality, normativity, suffering, and the nature of disease. I argue that while the neurodiversity movement's emphasis on normality is ultimately misplaced, the movement nevertheless has much to teach us about rights, identity, authority, and self-determination.

Text

2014-10-14

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/50721

Science and Technology Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/