{"id":782,"date":"2015-09-21T19:30:19","date_gmt":"2015-09-21T19:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/?p=782"},"modified":"2015-10-13T18:56:21","modified_gmt":"2015-10-13T18:56:21","slug":"the-social-life-of-autism-and-asd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/2015\/09\/21\/the-social-life-of-autism-and-asd\/","title":{"rendered":"The Social Life of Autism and ASD"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Hepingting,<\/a>
Hepingting, Flickr CC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Autism and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)<\/a> are the umbrella terms for a broad range of complex disorders of brain development. They have been the center of national concern and even political debate<\/a> as diagnoses become more frequent. Since the symptoms of autism and ASD are based on a range of behavioral indicators, diagnosis is not straightforward. Instead, ASD is a clear example of how social factors shape the way we understand disease and medicine. The cause of autism remains unknown, but diagnosis has risen with changes in diagnostic criteria, increased awareness, and more reliance on families for treatment.<\/p>\n

Gil Eyal argues that autism was a rare disorder in the era of mental institutions, where children were simply deemed \u201cmentally retarded\u201d and separated from families. Changes since the \u201870s have meant mental healthcare is no longer mostly addressed in large, hospital-like institutions, but through a network of local therapeutic services that have created new opportunities for parents to interact with therapists and take part in diagnosis and treatment. This new social arrangement has increased practitioners\u2019 trust in parents\u2019 experiences and helped create a new category of mental illness.<\/h5>\n