Tracing disorder across theories of autism, empathy, and mental health care

Abstract

Categories of mental disorders are generally understood through a biomedical paradigm of clinical research, diagnosis, and intervention. Here, diagnoses operate as professional tools, facilitating care organization and information exchange across diverse social contexts. In this article, I focus on how the diagnosis of autism-spectrum disorder operates in this manner. Autism conceived as a biomedical disorder is then contrasted with proposals by the neurodiversity movement, who understand core qualities of autism as alternative expressions of otherwise normal processes of brain development. Finally, I supplement these conversations with insights from Gerald Edelman’s theory of neural plasticity and Felix Guattari’s paradigm of ethico-aesthetic care. Understood together, these allow mental disorders and community care generally to be reconceived in terms of networks of expressive, embodied, and dynamically embedded rhythms that transcend individual persons. This serves, additionally, to illustrate a concept of empathy that traverses neurological, psychological, and sociocultural domains.

Keywords:

• autism
• disorder
• mental health care
• ethico-aesthetic
• neurodiversity

Acknowledgements

The author is indebted to Lisa Osbeck, Aaron Cantrell, and of course the reviewers for the guidance and feedback provided in developing this article. The article ended in a significantly better place as a result of engaging with each of you at various points in the process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.