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Adolphe Quetelet’s (1796 - 1874) "invention of the Average Man marked the moment when the average became normal, the individual became error, and stereotypes were validated with the imprint of science." This paved the path for pathologisation https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/02/the-invention-of-the-normal-person/463365/. https://twitter.com/dyctiostelium/status/1297274207097610240
"These assumptions would eventually prompt generations of parents to worry if their child did not develop according to the average milestones, and cause almost everyone to feel anxiety when their health, social life, or career deviated too far from the average."
The DSM is an artefact of narrow-minded Western monoculture and the industrialised factory model of education https://autcollab.org/2019/05/16/beyond-peak-human-standardisation/.
#Neurodiversity is a biological fact. In contrast, the terms #neuronormativity and #neurodivergence only make sense in relation to the norms of a specific culture.
The more a society pathologises #neurodivergent people, the more it relies on over-simplistic assumptions about humans, and the less it is able to maintain trusted collaborations with minorities and other societies with different cultural norms https://autcollab.org/2020/04/30/autism-the-cultural-immune-system-of-human-societies/.
The church of psychiatry is the pseudoscience that defines the boundary between the culturally well adjusted in-group and the inconvenient out-group of non-conformists. The sheer weight of the bible is a reflection of the level of inclusivity in Western monocultures.
From the perspective of the autism rights movement ownership of the definition of autism is a practical question of human rights and social power relationships in the here and now. Guidelines for future autism research and relevant definitions: https://autcollab.org/2019/03/15/guidelines-for-future-autism-research/.
Pathologisation of neurodivergence can be understood as a collective #learningdisability within societies that discriminate against the inconvenient perspectives of #neurominorities.
Instead of pathologisation of neurodivergence, societies would do well reduce their collective learning disabilities by listening to #neurodivergent people & engaging in dialogues that lead to a broader & more enlightened understanding of human potential https://autcollab.org/2020/08/16/from-collective-delusion-to-creative-collaboration/.
