Parents seek autism diagnoses for their children to acquire eligibility for school and therapeutic programs
Probably the most important factor in the proliferation of autism diagnoses was the positive feedback loop between spirited patient advocacy and the provision of school and therapeutic programs that require an autism diagnosis. About half of the “epidemic” is probably service driven—children get the diagnosis incorrectly because it is the ticket to more attention in the school system and more intense mental health treatment.
- psychiatry’s connection to eugenics
- Psychiatry plays a moralizing role for society by defining behavior in terms of normal and abnormal
- This further substatates psychiatry’s role in establishing moral norms:
- As Public schools serve to manufacture a manageable population and to put down dissent and originality
- I believe that the selective function plays a large role in this process.
As the population of “autistic” patients and their families grew, they gained the power to push for many additional services—sometimes by initiating successful lawsuits. The additional services then provided further incentive to increased diagnosis. With more people diagnosed, there was then an even larger constituency to push for more services.
References
- Frances, Allen. (2014). Saving Normal Chapter 5. Fads of the Present (p. 198). New York, NY: HarperCollins.
Metadata
Type:🔴 Tags: Psychiatry Status:⛅️