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Is Autism too inclusive?!

Mads

I caught the tail end of a discussion on the radio last night. It was (I think) regarding Professor Dame Uta Frith.

“The spectrum has gone on being more and more accommodating, and I think now it has come to its collapse,” said Professor Dame Uta Frith (UCL Cognitive Neuroscience) on the widening autism spectrum and the growing challenges in diagnosis.

I haven't got a definitive reference but there are online newspapers that have the story (I just don't want to sign up to them to read the full article).

All thoughts welcome. 

Joey. 

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  • in reply to pietro_21

    Maybe Thinking it feels like it’s getting harder to be assessed or what they assess might be put under more scrutiny. If people want an answer they can find out quickly. Is not as if people are jumping to proclaim their autism nd although this does seem to be a thing when linked to sexuality or identity. Personally I like to talk about it on its own, someone asked if I had dyspraxia or dyslexia and it turns out I tested positive  15 years ago and I do. I just never took a real interest. Linking autism to other conditions doesn’t really interest me, to me this is self interest. And a kind of technicality. Autism is the big fish, learning that was like learning who my people are.

    is autism too inclusive? Well we are a highly excluded group, it would make sense to maybe add more diagnosed members(?)

    Having read the rebuttal what this looks like to me is a leading researcher trying to make a breakthrough discovery everyone remembers her for. It seems highly impractical just to focus on an opinion, and ignore that the theory has been largely debunked. This is a key observation about the time we live in now and how people think about the condition because she doesn’t appear to separate herself much from the offence her ideas may cause people. Part of me feels yes this may be in small part true, but that would mean many thousands of people are misdiagnosed (and just a bit wet around the ears), and what happens to people who are not diagnosed you but do have autism? It assumes that the clinical process that’s been in place is airtight which we already know it’s not. For level 1 people who believe in the spectrum not traits this is really insulting.