Going Beyond the Catch-22 of Autism Diagnosis and Research. The Moral Implications of (Not) Asking “What Is Autism?”

Frontiers in Psychology 11 (2020)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Psychiatric diagnoses such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are primarily attributed on the basis of behavioral criteria. The aim of most of the biomedical research on ASD is to uncover the underlying mechanisms that lead to or even cause pathological behavior. However, in the philosophical and sociological literature, it has been suggested that autism is also to some extent a ‘social construct’ that cannot merely be reduced to its biological explanation. We show that a one-sided adherence to either a biological or a social explanation leads to a moral dilemma, a Catch-22, for autistics and for those living with them. Such explanations close the space for self-identifying as autistic and at the same time being considered to be in good mental health. They foreclose the possibility of making sense of the lived experience of (and with) autistics. In this paper we argue that such lack of space for moral imagination inherently leads to scientific stalemate. We propose that one can only go beyond this stalemate by taking an ethical stance in theorizing, one that enables better intersubjective understanding. Only on such a view can behavior and biology be linked without either disconnecting them or reducing the one to the other.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 101,394

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Cognitive Science Today, What is it to You?Hanne De Jaegher - 2023 - Journal of Consciousness Studies 30 (11):214-237.
Has Autism Changed?Simon Cushing - 2016 - In Monika dos Santos & Jean-Francois Pelletier (eds.), The Social Construction and Experiences of Madness. Inter-Disciplinary Press. pp. 75-94.
Fine Cuts of Moral Agency: Dissociable Deficits in Psychopathy and Autism.Dana Kay Nelkin - 2016 - In S. Matthew Liao & Collin O'Neil (eds.), Current Controversies in Bioethics. New York: Routledge. pp. 47-66.

Analytics

Added to PP
2020-12-22

Downloads
169 (#139,657)

6 months
11 (#348,792)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Kristien Hens
University of Antwerp

References found in this work

The social construction of what?Ian Hacking - 1999 - Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
The Modularity of Mind.Robert Cummins & Jerry Fodor - 1983 - Philosophical Review 94 (1):101.
Ways of worldmaking.Nelson Goodman - 1978 - Hassocks [Eng.]: Harvester Press.

View all 34 references / Add more references