Contributions of the neurodiversity approach to understanding autism: a narrative literature review.

Autor(es): Luísa Ordovás Bolzan , Carla B Valentini,
Orientador: Claudia Alquati Bisol
Quantidade de visulizações: 129

Autism is a complex condition that affects a person's development from early stages of life. Over time, different conceptions, theories and approaches have been put forward in attempts to understand and treat autism. The first authors to present autism were Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger. Psychoanalysis contributed with psychodynamic interpretations and medicine with neurobiological explanations and systematised what we know today as Autistic Spectrum Disorder. However, autism can be seen from a relational perspective, in which different modes of subjective organisation only appear to be symptomatic due to the lack of resources offered by the environment. In this framework, the neurodiversity movement seeks to represent and defend this relational view of autism. The aim of this article is to analyse the contributions of the neurodiversity approach to understanding autism. The specific objectives are: to understand the conceptual, historical and social aspects of the neurodiversity movement; to problematise the conceptions of autism and Autism Spectrum Disorder, tensioning the medical model based on the contributions of the neurodiversity approach to psychology and education. A bibliographic search was carried out using Scielo and CAPES Journals databases, associating the key search words "autism" and "neurodiversity", published between 2008 and 2023 and produced by Brazilian researchers. The search resulted in 25 articles. Analysing the titles and abstracts with regard to the theme of the articles resulted in the selection of 14 articles that were read in their entirety. Finally, of these 14, one article was discarded because it did not address the topic of neurodiversity. Results show how neurodiversity has broken paradigms by defending a different way of existing. The difficulties faced by autistic people result from discrepancies between the needs of the individuals and the resources offered by the environment, socially constructing disability. We also see how the medical model sustains the maintenance of this subject-environment deficit relationship, normalising bodies and marginalising groups of people who differ from the norm.

Palavras-chave: autism, neurodiversity, disability