Social Construct
Like ADHD, which has a similar social construct theory, a spectral disorder such as autism may be understood as a cultural or social construct. The theory says that the boundary between normal and abnormal is subjective and arbitrary, so autism does not exist as an objective entity, but only as a social construct. It further argues that autistic individuals themselves have a way of being that is partly socially constructed.
Asperger syndrome and high-functioning autism are particular targets of the theory that social factors determine what it means to be autistic. The theory hypothesizes that individuals with these diagnoses inhabit the identities that have been ascribed to them, and promote their sense of well-being by resisting or appropriating autistic ascriptions.
Read more about this topic: Causes Of Autism
Famous quotes containing the words social and/or construct:
“You may cut off the heads of every rich man now living—of every statesman—every literary, and every scientific authority, without in the least changing the social situation. Artists, of course, disappeared long ago as social forces. So did the church. Corporations are not elevators, but levellers, as I see them.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“And it has to find what will suffice. It has
To construct a new stage.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)