Autistic Heterogeneity: Linking Uncertainties and Indeterminacies

Abstract

Autism is a highly uncertain entity and little is said about it with any degree of certainty. Scientists must, and do, work through these uncertainties in the course of their work. Scientists explain uncertainty in autism research through discussion of epistemological uncertainties which suggest that diverse methods and techniques make results hard to reconcile, ontological uncertainties which suggest doubt over taxonomic coherence, but also through reference to autism’s indeterminacy which suggests that the condition is inherently heterogeneous. Indeed, indeterminacy takes two forms—an inter-personal form which suggests that there are fundamental differences between individuals with autism and an intra-personal form which suggests that no one factor is able to explain all features of autism within a given individual. What is apparent in the case of autism is that scientists put uncertainty and indeterminacy into discussion with one another and, rather than a well-policed epistemic-ontic boundary, there is a movement between, and an entwinement of, the two. Understanding scientists’ dialogue concerning uncertainty and indeterminacy is of importance for understanding autism and autistic heterogeneity but also for understanding uncertainty and ‘uncertainty work’ within science more generally.

Keywords:

• autism
• neuroscience
• psychology
• uncertainty work
• indeterminacy work

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank both the peer reviewers and the editors for their extensive engagement with this piece and Eva Giraud for her comments on previous drafts. The advice of Paul Martin, Antonia Hamilton, and Alison Pilnick throughout has been invaluable.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCiD

Gregory Hollin http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4348-8272

Additional information

Funding

This research arises from a thesis funded through the Economic and Social Research Council's Open Competition (ES/I01196X/1). Subsequent support was provided via a Mildred Blaxter Post-Doctoral Fellowship from the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness and an Institutional Strategic Support Fund Fellowship from the University of Leeds and The Wellcome Trust.