Chasing the Intact Mind: Autism Discourse, Policy and Practice, 1943-Present / Amy S.F Lutz.

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Lutz, Amy S.F., author.

Contributor:

University of Pennsylvania. History and Sociology of Science, degree granting institution.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

History.

History and Sociology of Science--Penn dissertations.

Penn dissertations--History and Sociology of Science.

Local Subjects:

History.

History and Sociology of Science--Penn dissertations.

Penn dissertations--History and Sociology of Science.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (218 pages)

Distribution:

Ann Arbor : ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 2022

Contained In:

Dissertations Abstracts International 84-03A.

Place of Publication:

[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] : University of Pennsylvania, 2022.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In her 2006 memoir Strange Son, Cure Autism Now co-founder Portia Iversen described the "intact mind" she believed was buried within even the most cognitively impaired autistic individuals, like her son Dov. But the sentiment itself was not new. Emerging largely out of psychoanalytic theory dating back to the end of the 19th century, the intact mind was amplified in parent memoirs even as biomedical discourse consolidated in the 1970s around a very different depiction of autism: as a biologically based, intractable neurodevelopmental disorder. With as many as 1 out of every 44 American children now affected, according to the CDC, discourse originally unique to autism has come to inform current debates at the heart of intellectual and developmental disability practice and policy in the United States - including battles over sheltered workshops, guardianship, and facilitated communication. This myopic focus, however, inadvertently reproduces historic patterns of discrimination that yoked human worth to intelligence. It is only by making space for the impaired mind, I argue, that we will be able to resolve these ongoing clashes - as well as even larger questions of personhood, dependency, and care.

Notes:

Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 84-03, Section: A.

Advisors: Linker, Beth; Committee members: Aronowitz, Robby; Moreno, Jonathan; Sadowsky, Jonathan.

Department: History and Sociology of Science.

Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania 2022.

Local Notes:

School code: 0175

ISBN:

9798351442976

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.