Autistic Scholar

The Neurodiversity Paradigm In Part I of this post, we discussed how the pathology paradigm (Walker, 2013) is failing under the weight of the anomalies that beset it.  We concluded that it was time to find a new paradigm.  The emerging rival to the pathology paradigm is the neurodiversity paradigm. Judy Singer (1998/2016), who is generally accepted to have coined the term “neurodiversity,” asked: “Why not appropriate metaphors based on biodiversity, for instance, to advance the causes of people with…

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The Pathology Paradigm Most of us have a basic idea of how psychological interventions work.  The “disordered” person has a deficit, a deficiency.  We intervene to eliminate or reduce the deficit, improving the “disordered” person’s ability to function in the world.  Ultimately, we want to eliminate the “disorder” entirely if possible.  It’s neat and logical.  We can refer to this set of ideas and assumptions as the pathology paradigm (see Walker, 2013). There’s also a number of serious problems with…

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