Thursday, February 2, 2012

"I Had Asperger Syndrome. Briefly" - The false promise of Mental Health diagnosis


FOR a brief, heady period in the history of autism spectrum diagnosis, in the late ’90s, I had Asperger syndrome. 

There’s an educational video from that time, called “Understanding Asperger’s,” in which I appear. I am the affected 20-year-old in the wannabe-hipster vintage polo shirt talking about how keen his understanding of literature is and how misunderstood he was in fifth grade. The film was a research project directed by my mother, a psychology professor and Asperger specialist, and another expert in her department. It presents me as a young man living a full, meaningful life, despite his mental abnormality.

1 comment :

  1. There are always flavours of the month in psychiatry. In the 1990's and early 00's everyone was bipolar. Then they all had Asperger's or were borderline. No one considered that maybe they were just that way for no diseased reason.

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