On the Misuses of Neurodiversity: Critical Approaches and Counter-narratives
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-5-2024
Journal Title
Autism in Adulthood
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1089/aut.2024.0016
Version
Other: (please specify below)
Disciplines
Disability and Equity in Education
Abstract
The concept of neurodiversity has gained wide recognition in mainstream society within the past two decades. As it is now increasingly used in education and clinical settings, its original meaning, which comes from grassroots neurodivergent activism, has been skewed. While initially coined to reclaim the cultural and political dimensions of the neurodivergent experience, moving away from pathologization and deficit-based narratives found in widely used clinical texts like the DSM-V, so-called experts have co-opted the term. These medicalizing discourses and regulatory practices stem from the ideology of White supremacy, the settler colonial structure, and a capitalist system that bolsters the productive, neoliberal citizen archetype. Neurodivergent peoples’ bodyminds disrupt this archetype and what it represents in terms of medicalizing discourses that separate ideal citizens from deficient ones. Feeling threatened, professionals—who reinforce this power relation by administering treatment and intervention—adopt harmful strategies, including separating neurodivergence from disability, to reclaim and legitimize their expertise. Our work examines how the concept of neurodiversity is used to mobilize these strategies and how they impact neurodivergent people seeking affirming care, resources, and community. Drawing from social media and other online resources, we use testimonios and storytelling to analyze the for-profit misappropriation and rebranding of neurodivergent liberatory practices. We then juxtapose these with examples of neurodivergent counter-narratives to illustrate creative forms of resilience. To close, we offer recommendations to professionals who intend to address and re-orient these practices toward harm reduction and, eventually, to support collective liberation.
Original Publication Citation
Acevedo, S. M., & Stolz, S. (2024). On the misuses of neurodiversity: Critical approaches and counter-narratives. Autism in Adulthood. https://doi.org/10.1089/aut.2024.0016
Digital USD Citation
Acevedo, Sara M. and Stolz, Suzanne, "On the Misuses of Neurodiversity: Critical Approaches and Counter-narratives" (2024). School of Leadership and Education Sciences: Faculty Scholarship. 82.
https://digital.sandiego.edu/soles-faculty/82
Notes
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