| ▲ | wpietri 5 hours ago | |
This is an important point. To a first approximation, the DSM is about what a majority thinks is wrong. Sometimes this is pretty close to universal. Sometimes it isn't: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_the_DSM This study suggests that there are several different things called "autism". That's because "autism" as a term is not about some underlying reality, but a bucket that a bunch of people get tossed when some medical professionals see them as similar. And they come to the attention of those medical professionals because those people either say they have a problem or are called a problem by others. But a problem with a person is always about a person in a context. Blue-eyed people are hindered by their eyes in bright light. Do we call that a genetic disease and look for cures? Not here, because there are enough "normal" people with blue eyes. But if it was just 1 in 20,000 people with blue eyes, it'd surely be treated as a disease. Or we could imagine a "Height Deficiency Syndrome" characterized by inability to reach the top shelves in a normal house. With an effort, we could surely cure this impactful genetic problem through early application of hormones and the use of new CRISPR-related technologies. Or we could look at it as normal human variation which only "hinders" people because of how our society is set up to cater to "normal" people. But we thankfully now have a term for that sort of nonsense: medicalization of deviance. | ||