O autismo na pólis: efeitos sobre o lugar da criança no imaginário social no Brasil

Abstract

Autism became a mediator of the bond between adults and children, even appearing where it is not present. The insistence of this signifier in different spaces, the excess of discursive circulation regarding the diagnostic category of Autistic Spectrum Disorder and the psychic development of babies and children, in addition to crystallizing diagnostic shortcuts, testify to new marks that are inscribed in children in these times. More precisely, autism became that in the name of which we intervene with children, at the same time being the name of a risk to be avoided and the amplification of the way we adults dream and build the child in the social imaginary. In both positions, an ideal child is on the horizon. This is the thesis that we sought to defend throughout the study. Our reflections were based on mapping a particular macro-political context that involves autism, broken down throughout the work. In this, the increase in the prevalence of the diagnosis, the mobilization of associations of parents and family members and the autistic people themselves transformed the issue into a public health concern. In Brazil, interventions are organized in a complex field and give rise to political proposals focused on the theme, most of them electing children as a target audience. From a literature review and bibliographic research, we present what we call the field of autism organized in three vectors, contemplating the disputes regarding diagnosis and treatments; the effects of recognizing autism as a disability; the demands of associations of parents and family members and autistic people. The disputes on the stage in each of these three vectors constitute a real battlefield. Interested in the Brazilian political propositions of the last decade specifically directed at autism and in the relationships established between autism and childhood, the thesis aimed to understand how the propositions about autism and its related policies speak of the place manufactured and reserved today for children in the social imaginary, from which each child will have to come as a subject and conquer a unique place. The analysis moved between two discursive plans, based on dialogue with authors in the psychoanalytic field and with sociological and anthropological readings, as well as Brazilian public policies that allowed mapping the current scenario of autism as a public issue. Therefore, from the policies for autism, we developed a reflection on the political dimension of daily life with children and the bond proposed to them.