A new wave of activists wants to celebrate atypical brain function as a positive identity, not a disability. Opponents call them dangerously deluded.

From New York magazine, an extended feature on the new autism rights — AKA neurodiversity — movement.

Writer Andrew Solomon concludes that there are actually three camps in the autism debate that are blatantly hostile to one another:

• Those who believe autism is caused by environmental toxins (especially vaccines) and should be cured by addressing those pollutants;
• Those who believe it is genetic and should be addressed through the genome; and
• The neurodiverse, who believe that it is genetic and should be left alone.

Solomon himself has depression, and feels that his experience with it has been on the whole positive. He concludes that autism, and its champions, also have much to contribute to human understanding.

It is unproductive to rail against the incurable; if you can learn to love it, that’s your best chance of happiness. For some people, the love is self-evident; for others, it is acquired through struggle; others cannot do more than pretend to it. Though neurodiversity activists can get in the way of science and sometimes wrap themselves up in self-important, specious arguments, they also light the way to such love—a model of social acceptance and self-acceptance that has the capacity to redeem whole lives.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 26th, 2008 at 7:21 pm and is filed under NOT2BEMISSED, advocacy, autism, depression, genetic diversity, genetics, public attitudes, quality of life, vaccine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.