Honorable Mention, 2020 Stirling Prize for Best Published Work in
Psychological Anthropology, given by the Society for Psychological
Anthropology
*Honorable Mention, New Millennium Book Award, given by the Society
for Medical Anthropology
*
How youth on the autism spectrum negotiate the contested meanings of
neurodiversity
Autism is a deeply contested condition. To some, it is a devastating
invader, harming children and isolating them. To others, it is an asset
and a distinctive aspect of an individual's identity. How do young
people on the spectrum make sense of this conflict, in the context of
their own developing identity?
While most of the research on Asperger's and related autism conditions
has been conducted with individuals or in settings in which people on
the spectrum are in the minority, this book draws on two years of
ethnographic work in communities that bring people with Asperger's and
related conditions together. It can thus begin to explore a form of
autistic culture, through attending to how those on the spectrum make
sense of their conditions through shared social practices.
Elizabeth Fein brings her many years of experience in both clinical
psychology and psychological anthropology to analyze the connection
between neuropsychological difference and culture. She argues that
current medical models, which espouse a limited definition, are ill
equipped to deal with the challenges of discussing autism-related
conditions. Consequently, youths on the autism spectrum reach beyond
medicine for their stories of difference and disorder, drawing instead
on shared mythologies from popular culture and speculative fiction to
conceptualize their experience of changing personhood.
In moving and persuasive prose, Living on the Spectrum illustrates
that young people use these stories to pioneer more inclusive
understandings of what makes us who we are.
