Autism Causes .info: "Offensive" / " inappropriate" language about autism

This is a website relating to the unchallenged theory of autism, IQ and genius, Personality and Individual Differences 14:459-482 (1993) by Robin P Clarke (the antiinnatia theory). An update review paper is being prepared for publication. Meanwhile you can download the original 1993 publication (my reprint) here . (the journal site version is here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0191-8869(93)90316-U, but without added charts of social class and you may have to pay Elsevier $31.)
I cannot put the update paper on a website in advance of it being accepted by a journal. But in the interim I can send you a draft copy by email if you email a request for it to rpclarke[att]autismcauses[dott]info .
Comments here are not pre-moderated or re-editable so please choose your words with care.

"Offensive" / " inappropriate" language about autism

When I first started sending manuscripts to journals, I once got back a reply that it was offensive to use the term "autistics". Instead one has to ramble on about "children with autism" (which is probably why so many people assume that autism is confined to children, and is something that one either "has" or does not "have"). Meanwhile it has become the standard practice of the same people to refer to autism and related conditions as "autism spectrum disorder", or ASD. There's even a journal called the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. Now I may be just a twit but I would have thought that referring to autism as being a disorder must be genuinely offensive, given that so many autistics do not want to be "cured" of the "disorder" they supposedly have. And meanwhile let's not be big hypocritical babies unable to usefully call a spade anything shorter than "tool for digging".

Persons with femaleness.
Persons with generosity.
Persons with racism.
Persons with Britishness.
Persons with Protestantism.
Persons with degrees.
Persons with professorships.
Persons with elderliness.
Autistics with childness.

In addition, the terminology of "autistic spectrum" I find very unhelpful, because it gives a false impression of having only one dimension of variability. In reality the autistic syndrome is a rather multidimensional thing, which would be best referred to as just that. It naturally includes those diagnosed as Aspergers and also those with just one or two features of the syndrome (such as the communication disabilities noted in siblings of the Rutter/Folstein twin study).

0 comments:

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

"Robin P Clarke is one of those rare souls..."; "excellent"; "fine work" -- Bernard Rimland, founder of Autism Research Institute, Autism Society of America, etc, etc, ....
"Well worth publishing."
-- HJ Eysenck, most-cited-ever scientist (who did indeed publish it).
".........................."
-- Simon Baron-Cohen,
hyper-outstandingly distinguished head of Cambridge University's Intergalactic Autism Research Centre.
"You should be celebrating that your work is being ignored [like Mendel's peas, Wegener's continental drift, etc, etc]."
-- Bernard Rimland, debunker of Bettleheim theory, founder of Autism Research Institute, etc etc.

Firefox browser is recommended for the best view of this site (and most others).

If there's a uk2.net banner at top of this page, you can get out of it via right-clicking on any link then opening a new window.

THIS IS NOT A BLOG! Please note that this website just happens to be free courtesy of blogger.com who like all the rest (as far as I can make out) give one no option except the "blog" format, that is pages/posts in reverse date order. I would prefer this site to be more like a work-in-progress encyclopedia but I haven't yet found anywhere where that is provided free and easy to edit and comment (as here). Please understand that any dates and orderings are of no significance here except insofar as I try to arrange the contents in more suitable order.

Legal Notice: The Author specifically invokes the First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and of the press without prejudice. The information written is published for informational purposes only under the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Constitution for the United States of America, and should not in any way be used as a substitute for the advice of a physician or other licensed health care practitioner. The statements contained herein have not been evaluated by the FDA. The products discussed herein are not intended to diagnose, cure, prevent or treat any disease.