From Cure to Community: Transforming Notions of Autism
From Cure to Community: Transforming Notions of Autism
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1548-1352.2009.01080.x
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发表时间：
2010-03-01
期刊：
影响因子：
0.6
通讯作者：
Bagatell, Nancy
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Bagatell, Nancy
几十年来，自闭症一直被视为一种生物医学疾病，突出了社会互动和沟通的缺陷。基于一项对高功能自闭症成年人的研究的民族志数据，本文探讨了自闭症社区的出现，这是一个由自闭症患者组成的群体，他们正在挑战这些概念。首先，我认为有三个历史趋势可以与这个社区的出现联系起来：自闭症谱系的扩大，自我倡导运动的加强，以及技术的爆炸。从民族志的数据，我描述了社区，包括它的话语，职业或活动，和词汇。尽管自闭症群体在过去十年中不断壮大，但它也面临着来自群体内外的阻力。我调查这种紧张局势，在辩论中出现的自闭症是否是一种需要治疗的条件或生活方式，并建议自闭症社区有能力改变自闭症的概念。本研究对心理人类学的社会性概念的启示。
For many decades, autism has been viewed as a biomedical condition, highlighting deficits in social interaction and communication. Based on ethnographic data from a study of adults with High Functioning Autism, this article explores the emergence of the autistic community, a group composed of people with autism, who are challenging these notions. First, I suggest that three historical trends can be linked to the emergence of this community: the widening of the autism spectrum, the strengthening of the self-advocacy movement, and the explosion of technology. Drawing from ethnographic data, I describe the community, including its discourse, occupations or activities, and lexicon. Although the autistic community has grown over the past decade, it has also faced resistance from both inside and outside the group. I investigate this tension, arising in a debate regarding whether autism is a condition in need of a cure or a way of life and suggest that the autistic community has the power to transform notions of autism. Implications of this research for psychological anthropology's notions of sociality are introduced.