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Title: Models of Neurodivergence Author: Ozy Frantz Date: November 2016 Language: en Topics: anarcho-transhumanism, neurodiversity Source: http://humaniterations.net/wp-content/uploads/anarchotranshuman3.pdf
(Note: I will be discussing brain-related disabilities, because I am not
confident enough in my opinions on physical disability to be sure this
model is useful. I am going to be interchangeably using
“neurodivergence”, “brain weirdness”, etc. This is intended to be
inclusive of intellectually, developmentally, learning, and
psychiatrically disabled people.)
It is often useful to distinguish the map and the territory. When we
talk about the map, we talk about what we believe; when we talk about
the territory, we talk about what’s true. These are not necessarily the
same thing! I can draw a map that says that San Francisco is in Alaska,
but that doesn’t mean that I should be wearing several layers of coats
right now.
It’s important to note that– even if your map is accurate– the process
of making a map loses information. A map of San Francisco doesn’t
include everything you see walking down the street; on the other hand,
you can look at a map of San Francisco when you can’t look at the whole
city. Different maps are useful for different purposes: a BART station
map is useful if you want to figure out which train to get on, while a
map of vegan restaurants is useful if you are trying to feed my
boyfriend Topher. And some maps really aren’t useful at all: a map that
includes only streets that begin with A– even if it were perfectly
accurate– is going to be pretty useless for San Francisco street
navigation.
Talking about models of neurodivergence is a way of talking about
different ways of mapping the far-off land of Brain Disability. There
are lots of different maps! Terrifying Inhuman Monsters Who Will Snap
And Kill Us All is a map. Lazy People Making Excuses For Their Character
Flaws is a map. Children In Adult Bodies is a map. This site includes
descriptions of a lot of maps.
However, I am going to examine two maps more closely: one of which is
the most prominent in non-disability-rights communities, and one of
which is most common in disability-rights communities.
The medical model of neurodivergence works something like this: just
like some people can have sick bodies, some people can have sick brains.
(Brain sickness is traditionally referred to as a “chemical imbalance”,
whether or not there’s any evidence it is actually caused by imbalances
in any chemicals.) If your brain is sick, you should go to a doctor and
receive treatment that will make you not sick anymore.
The medical model is very useful for lots of people. Many people find
that framing depression as something wrong with their brain is helpful.
It’s a big step up from the Lazy People Making Excuses For Their
Character Flaws model, which all too often means that people are
miserable and then blame themselves for being miserable, or don’t seek
appropriate accommodations because if they just had enough willpower
they’d be able to fix it.
However, it also has serious flaws. The medical model leads to the idea
that the only reason one could want to refuse treatment is that you’re
too crazy to realize what’s wrong with you. While it is true that
sometimes people are too crazy to realize that treatment would be in
their best interests, many times people legitimately feel that
hospitalization, therapy, or medication won’t help them; all too often,
the tradeoff between these two is not recognized.
The medicalization of mental illness is often believed to reduce stigma:
hence the array of “depression/anorexia/bipolar/suicidality is an
ILLNESS” posters one is continually subjected to on Tumblr. However,
evidence suggests that this may not work. While medicalization reduces
blame, it makes people more pessimistic about recovery, has no effect on
social distance, and either has no effect or worsens people’s
perceptions of the dangerousness of neurodivergent people. Furthermore,
in the past ten years, people have accepted the medical model much more,
but continued to socially distance themselves from neurodivergent
people, believe they are dangerous, and generally stigmatize
neurodivergence. If anything, it increases levels of community
rejection!
At the same time, the medical model isn’t very good for people who are
going to have weird brains for the rest of their lives. A key part of
the medical model is that treatment makes you not sick anymore. This
leads to much-critiqued therapies like ABA for autism, which not only
attempt to increase functioning but also eliminate behaviors that are
neutral but not neurotypical– because as long as you’re still visibly
neurodivergent, you’re still sick.
It contributes to a Fantasy of Being Neurotypical, similar to the
Fantasy of Being Thin. You can spend your entire life trying to become a
neurotypical person and failing– or you can accept that you’re
neurodivergent and try to live the best life you can as a neurodivergent
person.It is possible to have a happy, fulfilled life and be badbrains
as fuck. And for those of us who have incurable mental Stuff, it is
necessary.
The social model of mental illness works like this: some people are not
able to do things that other people can do; this is called “impaired”. A
person who cannot walk is impaired. Some impaired people are not
accommodated by society; this is called “disabled”. A person whose
apartment does not have a wheelchair ramp, which means they can’t leave
the house, is disabled. However, even though I am legally blind without
my glasses, I am not disabled; as long as my glasses don’t fall off my
face, I can see as well as anyone else.
“Accommodation” is a broad term. Reduced-cost housing or aides paid for
by the government are accommodations. Someone’s boss allowing them to
work from home sometimes can be an accommodation. Extra time on tests is
an accommodation. Your friends making dinner for you or avoiding wearing
perfume that triggers your sensory sensitivities can be an
accommodation. Occupational therapy or psychotherapy that teaches coping
skills can be an accommodation. Eventhings that seem very medical, like
psychiatric medications or electroconvulsive therapy, can be
accommodations.
If you’re having a hard time understanding the social model of
disability, I recommend you read Alicorn’s The Social Model of Humanity.
Humans are impaired because we cannot sense hidden portals. However, we
are not disabled by our inability to sense hidden portals, because
nobody can sense hidden portals and so we build all our buildings with
doors.
The social model of disability suggests that a lot of the harm of
disability is caused not by the impairment itself but by disability.
This seems probably true: physically impaired people who can participate
fully in society are just as happy as anyone else, while physically
impaired people who have to sit at home alone all day are not. It also
seems plausible that this isn’t true for all disorders: for instance, it
seems naively true that depression, being an impairment in one’s ability
to feel happiness, would suck no matter how well-accommodated.