Recovering the Soul of Autism: The Cultural Implication of Othering the Autistic Experience

Abstract

This research explores the cultural constructions surrounding autism that have endured since autism’s original inclusion in the DSM in 1980. Primarily, this hermeneutic study intended to address how the legacy of such constructs has influenced research and treatment, and how it may have impacted autistic individuals’ internalized sense of self. This study analyzed three texts published in the 1980s to illuminate often unseen assumptions around autism. Further, it sought to examine any sustained bias in past research and treatment towards autism where autism was seen as inherently abnormal. The study revealed that texts offer a consistent representation of autistic individuals as being bizarre, incomprehensible, incapable, and lacking internal agency. In addition, hermeneutic analysis showed that these diagnostic and theoretical texts minimized or ignored the impact of authors’ subjective lenses regarding autistic people, further cementing a negative neurotypical bias; yet these texts presented as objective in nature. This study identified and examined major cultural myths present in the three texts that, by their inclusion in these works, tie various cultural contexts to the respective authors’ subjective views as expressed in the texts. Identifying such biases is critical in the future development of theory and treatment for autism as biases have potential to lead to the construction of inaccurate conceptual frameworks, thus limiting creative and accurate solutions from emerging in future research. Finally, this study illuminates possible areas requiring further, in-depth research to address any sustained impact cultural biases may have had on autism research to date.