Blogora Classic: Autism as Metaphor, February 24, 2005

February 24, 2005

Autism as Metaphor

MSNBC.com and NBC News are running a useful series of reports on "Autism: The Hidden Epidemic" this week.

Autism is defined by the American Psychiatric Association as follows: Autism--A complex condition, autism is the most commonly diagnosed pervasive developmental disorder. Autism impairs a person’s ability to communicate, both verbally and non-verbally, to form relationships and to interact with others. It also typically results in a range of unusual and repetitive behaviors. A child with autism may initially appear to develop normally, but then withdraw and lose interest in others. Typically diagnosed by the time a child is age 3 or 4, autism can vary from mild to severe. Autism is frequently accompanied by mental retardation, but not always. In many cases, patients will show uneven levels of intelligence with highly developed talents in some areas.

Autism has now surpassed Down Syndrome as the most widespread developmental disability--affecting perhaps 1 out of 166 people. The causes are mysterious--although the best science we have appears to rule out mercury in vaccines as a potential cause. It is perhaps caused by environmental and other factors interacting with some inherited predisposition (parental learning disabilities and "social shyness"--odd one, that--are vaguely correlated with autism in children).

A good part of my life since 1990 has been defined by the fact that my two sons, Nick and Daniel, have autism. Nick is 16, has been mainstreamed into regular classes from the beginning, and now occasionally makes the honor roll in middle school, although he cannot carry on a normal conversation. Daniel is 14, nonverbal and still in diapers.

When I was in college, the Freudian/Bettelheimian doctrine that autism was "psychologically" produced by "refrigerator mothers" was still dogma, and one still finds social workers and other educated professionals who think that Bettelheim (who regularly beat autistic children under his care at his clinic in Chicago) was somehow a great "humanist." If my children lived in France, where the dogmas of Freud and Lacan are still au courant, they would be treated as having a psychological disorder rather than a neurological one. I hope someday we will finally view Freud and Lacan the way we currently view phrenology--they have about as much scientific basis, although Freud and Lacan have done more damage to peoples' lives.

Deirdre McCloskey and other economic heretics have formed a society for Post-Autistic Economics--which I find amusing rather than offensive. Autism is a good metaphor for a certain kind of academic enterprise.

Autism has been represented in a number of films and books (my favorite one is from the 1960's, where an autistic child is cured by a hug from Elvis Presley). It would be a good study for someone looking for a dissertation topic.

Categories: Rhetoric and politics 

Posted by jim at 11:30 AM | Comments (0)