Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Commentary: “Why Not Both?” Negotiating Ideas About Autism in Italy, Brazil, and the US

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Autism in Translation

Part of the book series: Culture, Mind, and Society ((CMAS))

Abstract

This chapter is a commentary on “Autism Policy in Brazil and the USA” and “Psychiatric Reform and Autism Services in Italy and Brazil.” It examines a range of views on autism theory and practice, policies relating to autism, and options for treatments in the United States, Italy, and Brazil. These pieces offer insightful perspectives on how global issues and controversies around ASD take local form. The chapter argues that the notorious polarizations around autism might hide important negotiations and spaces beyond such antagonism. Examining systems of care delivery for individuals living with autism in their historical and social context enables us to see how binaries and polarizations (global/local, organicism/anti-organicsm, biological/relational, mental suffering/disability) are challenged and transcended through the pragmatic negotiation and integration of those binaries in the everyday work of those affected by the condition.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Anand, Sudhir, and Kara Hanson. 1997. “Disability Adjusted Life Years: A Critical Perspective.” Journal of Health Economics 16: 685–702.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, George M. 2015. “Autism Biomarkers: Challenges, Pitfalls, and Possibilities.” Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 45 (4): 1103–1113.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bagatell, Nancy. 2007. “Orchestrating Voices: Autism, Identity, and the Power of Discourse.” Disability & Society 22: 413–426.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baron-Cohen, Simon. 1995. Mindblindness: An Essay on Autism and Theory of Mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press and Bradford Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Becker, Anne, Anjali Motgi, Jonathan Weigel, Guiseppe Raviola, Salmaan Keshavjee, and Arthur Kleinman. 2013. “The Unique Challenges of Mental Health and MDRTB: Critical Perspectives on Metrics of Disease Burden.” In Reimagining Global Health: An Introduction, edited by Paul Farmer, Jim Yong Kim, Arthur Kleinman, and Matthew Basilico, 209–241. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bemme, Doerte, and Nicole A. D’souza. 2014. “Global Mental Health and Its Discontents: An Inquiry into the Making of Global and Local Scale.” Transcultural Psychiatry 51 (6): 850–874.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brasil. 2012. Lei n8 12.764, de 27 de dezembro de 2012, Institui a política nacional de proteção dos direitos da pessoa com transtorno do espectro autista e altera o §38 do art. 98 da Lei n8 8.112, de 11 de dezembro de 1990. Brasília: Diário Oficial da União, 27 de dezembro de 2012.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, Phil, Rachel Morello-Frosch, and Stephen Zavestoski, eds. 2011. Contested Illnesses: Citizens, Science, and Health Social Movements. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collier, Stephen J., and Aihwa Ong. 2005. “Global Assemblages, Anthropological Problems.” In Global assemblages: Technology, Politics, and Ethics as Anthropological Problems, edited by Stephen Collier and Aihwa Ong, 3–21. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Costa Andrada, Barbara. 2017. “Sentidos e desafios do autism para o território: um estudo etnográfico.” PhD thesis, State University of Rio de Janeiro.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elia, Luciano. 2013. “Psicanalise, ciencia e universidade.” In Psicanalise, autismo e saúde pública. Available at http://psicanaliseautismoesaudepublica.wordpress.com/2013/04/14/psicanalise-ciencia-e-universidade. Accessed on 6 November 2015.

  • Escobar, Arturo. 2001. “Culture Sits in Places: Reflections on Globalism and Subaltern Strategies of Localization.” Political Geography 20 (2): 139–174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feinberg, Edward, and John Vacca. 2000. “The Drama and Trauma of Creating Policies on Autism: Critical Issues to Consider in the New Millennium.” Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities 15 (3): 130–137.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feldman, Clara. 2017. “Autismo e rede de atenção psicossocial: Caminhos e desafios de uma rede em construção.” PhD dissertation, State University of Rio de Janeiro.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frith, Uta, and Francesca Happé. 1994. “Autism: Beyond ‘Theory of Mind.’” Cognition 50 (1–3): 115–132.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ingleby, David. 2014. “How ‘Evidence-Based’ Is the Movement for Global Mental Health?” Disability and the Global South 1 (2): 203–226.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jain, Sumeet, and David M.R. Orr 2016. “Ethnographic Perspectives on Global Mental Health.” Transcultural Psychiatry 53 (6): 685–695.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khan, Naila Z., Lilia Albores Gallo, Aurora Arghir, Bogdan Budisteanu, Magdalena Budisteanu, Iuliana Dobrescu, Kirsty Donald, et al. 2012. “Autism and the Grand Challenges in Global Mental Health.” Autism Research 5: 156–159.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kienzler, Hanna, and Peter Locke. 2017. “The Effects of Societal Violence in War and Post-war Contexts.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Sociocultural Perspectives on Global Mental Health, edited by Ross G. White, Sumeet Jain, David M.R. Orr, and Ursula M. Read, 285–305. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lord, and Jones. 2012. “Annual Research Review: Re-thinking the Classification of Autism Spectrum Disorders.” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 53: 490–509.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGuire, Anne. 2016. War on Autism. On the Cultural Logic of Normative Violence. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Nadesan, Majia Holmer. 2005. Constructing Autism: Unravelling the ‘Truth’ and Understanding the Social. London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newschaffer, Craig J., and Laura Kresch Curran. 2003. “Autism: An Emerging Public Health Problem.” Public Health Reports 118 (5): 393–399.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Dell, Lindsay, Hanna Bertilsdotter Rosqvist, Francisco Ortega, Charlotte Brownlow, and Michael Orsini. 2016. “Critical Autism Studies: Exploring Epistemic Dialogues and Intersections, Challenging Dominant Understandings of Autism.” Disability & Society 31 (2): 166–179.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ortega, Francisco. 2009. “The Cerebral Subject and the Challenge of Neurodiversity.” Biosocieties 4 (4): 425–445.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2013. “Cerebralizing Autism Within the Neurodiversity Movement.” In Worlds of Autism: Across the Spectrum of Neurological Difference, edited by Joyce Davidson and Michael Orsini, 73–95. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ortega, Francisco, and Suparna Choudhury. 2011. “‘Wired Up Differently’: Autism, Adolescence, and the Politics of Neurological Identities.” Subjectivity 4 (3): 323–345.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ortega, Francisco, Rafaela Zorzanelli, and Clarice Rios. 2016. “The Biopolitics of Autism in Brazil.” In Re-thinking Autism: Diagnosis, Identity and Equality, edited by Katherine Runswick-Cole, Rebecca Mallett, and Sami Timimi, 67–89. London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ozonoff, Sally, Bruce F. Pennington, and Sally J. Rogers. 1991. “Executive Function Deficits in High-Functioning Autistic Individuals: Relationship to Theory of Mind.” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 32 (7): 1081–1105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Parks, Rachel. 2014. “The Rise, Critique and Persistence of the DALY in Global Health.” The Journal of Global Health. http://www.ghjournal.org/the-rise-critique-and-persistence-of-the-daly-in-global-health/.

  • Rios, Clarice, and Barbara Costa Andrada. 2015. “The Changing Face of Autism in Brazil.” Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry 39 (2): 213–234.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosanoff, Michael J., Amy M. Daniels, and Andy Shih. 2015. “Autism: A (Key) Piece of the Global Mental Health Puzzle.” Global Mental Health 2 (2): 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1017/gmh.2014.7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenberg, Charles E. 2006. “Contested Boundaries: Psychiatry, Disease, and Diagnosis.” Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 49: 407–424.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rubin, Sue. 2005. “Acceptance Versus Cure.” CNN.com. http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/presents/shows/autism.world/notebooks/sue/notebook.html.

  • Silverman, Chloe. 2012. Understanding Autism: Parents, Doctors, and the History of a Disorder. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Singer, Judy. 1999. “Why Can’t You Be Normal For Once In Your Life? From a ‘Problem with No Name’ to the Emergence of a New Category of Difference.” In Disability Discourse, edited by Mairian Corker and Sally French, 59–67. Buckingham: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Singh, Jenifer S. 2016. Multiple Autisms: Spectrums of Advocacy and Genomic Science. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Souza Lima, Philipe. 2017. “O autismo como deficiência: impacto sobre o trabalho das equipes dos Centros de Atenção Psicossocial Infanto-Juvenil.” MS dissertation, State University of Rio de Janeiro.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt. 2005. Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vidal, Fernando, and Francisco Ortega. 2017. Being Brains: Making the Cerebral Subject. New York: Fordham University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wallace, Simon, Deborah Fein, Michael Rosanoff, Geraldine Dawson, Saima Hossain, Lynn Brennan, Ariel Como, and Andy Shih. 2012. “A Global Public Health Strategy for Autism Spectrum Disorders.” Autism Research 5 (3): 211–217. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.1236.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Walsh, Pat, Mayada Elsabbagh, Patrick Bolton, and Ilina Singh. 2011. “In Search of Biomarkers for Autism: Scientific, Social, and Ethical Challenges.” Nature Reviews Neuroscience 12: 603–612.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • White, Ross G., David M.R. Orr, Ursula M. Read, and Sumeet Jain. 2017. “Situating Global Mental Health: Sociocultural Perspectives.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Sociocultural Perspectives on Global Mental Health, edited by Ross G. White, Sumeet Jain, David M.R. Orr, and Ursula M. Read. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Wikler, Daniel. 2010. “Cognitive Disability, Paternalism, and the Global Burden of Disease.” In Cognitive Disability and Its Challenge to Moral Philosophy, edited by Eva. F. Kittay and Licia Carlson. London: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, Justin HG, Andrew Whiten, Thomas Suddendorf, and David I. Perrett. 2001. “Imitation, Mirror Neurons, and Autism.” Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 25 (4): 287–295.

    Google Scholar 

  • World Health Organization. 2016. International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. 10th Revision (ICD-10).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Social Medicine, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Francisco Ortega

Authors
  1. Francisco Ortega
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Elizabeth Fein

  2. Department of Social Psychology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Clarice Rios

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Ortega, F. (2018). Commentary: “Why Not Both?” Negotiating Ideas About Autism in Italy, Brazil, and the US. In: Fein, E., Rios, C. (eds) Autism in Translation. Culture, Mind, and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93293-4_4

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation