Is autism a mental disorder?

Abstract

The supporters of the neurodiversity movement contend that autism is not a mental disorder, but rather a natural human variation. In a recent paper Jerome Wakefield, David Wasserman and Jordan Conrad argued against this view relying on Wakefield’s harmful dysfunction theory of mental disorder (the HD theory). I argue that their arguments against those of the neurodiversity movement are plausible, but that their claim that high functioning autism in general is not a disorder is not well supported and probably false. I argue, in fact, that the disorder status of those with high functioning autism should be judged on a case-by-case basis, depending on the harmfulness of the condition. In this regard, I argue that the list of basic psychological capacities provided by George Graham provides an adequate conceptualization of harm to extend the coarse-grained conception of harm in Wakefield’s traditional formulation of HD. Moreover, this offers an appropriate tool for a case-by-case assessment of psychiatric relevant harm.