O vácuo na representação social do autismo

Abstract

This theoretical essay aimed to analyze the social representation of autism in the scientific literature of the field of Social Representations Theory and in the mass media.The work initially traces the history of autism from the first descriptions by Kanner and Asperger, its subsequent inclusion in Diagnostic Manuals as "Childhood Autism" (DSM-III), to its unification as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the DSM-5 and ICD-11. It then presents Serge Moscovici's Theory of Social Representations and the concepts of objectification and anchoring. The main function of social representations is to make the unfamiliar familiar. The analysis of the social representation of autism reveals strong ambiguity and uncertainty in common sense. Therefore, the Representational Vacuum hypothesis, suggested by Wachelke (2005), is used as a way to explain this persistent difficulty in anchoring autism in a clear and consensual manner, due to the multiplicity of conflicting theories about the object and scope of the diagnosis. It is pointed out that the media seem to reinforce this ambivalence, alternating between conceptions that simultaneously link autism to threat and to narratives of overcoming. On the other hand, groups linked to the autistic cause seek to promote the notion of Neurodiversity and build a Social Representation of autism that is far removed from negative and prejudiced conceptions.