We are living through a social paradox: mental health research has proved that social connection is crucial to wellbeing, yet during this pandemic social isolation is crucial to survival. Relationships are one of the most important aspects of our lives, but we can often...
autism
In 2017 I received a diagnosis of autism. During my diagnostic assessment, the Psychiatrist asked me a simple question with surprising consequences:
‘How do you feel about eye contact?’
‘Well’, I explained, ‘I look at someone for a few seconds, then take my cue...
In an attempt to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), unprecedented changes have been made to the inherently social world we live in. Though for many this may feel unusual, I cannot help but notice that for those on the autism spectrum, attempting to function...
A briefing document produced by last year’s winner of the joint BPS and Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) postgraduate award has now been published. Margaret Laurie’s note covers information about autism and its prevalence, co-occurring conditions,...
As a 16-year-old student hoping to study psychology at university, I recently attended a film festival in Singapore. One movie I watched was Innocent Witness, a Korean film directed by Lee Han. It appealed to me as one of the main characters has autism and I have previously...
An internationally-renowned autism researcher has received this year’s British Psychological Society Presidents’ Award. Professor Francesca Happé (King’s College London) has led seminal work on the neurocognitive causes of social impairments in autism and more recently has...
I was saddened to see the letter from Cross and Atherton. This was one of many recent articles from various outlets to take issue with the concept of neurodiversity. Only, the concept as...
Autism: A new introduction to psychological theory and current debate, 2nd Edition by Sue Fletcher-Watson and Francesca Happé, published by Routledge is...
The neurodiversity movement posits that autism research, dominated by a deficit model, has for decades failed to improve lives. The movement advocates for an alternative model in which autistic stakeholders have a say in research initiatives, rather than being present as mere...
In recent years there has been an exponential rise in the amount of autism research undertaken, yet much of the narrative has been at odds with voices from the autistic community following the ‘neurodiversity paradigm’ which could loosely be described as applying a social (or...