Stereotypes of autism

Abstract

In their landmark papers, both Kanner and Asperger employed a series of case histories to shape clinical insight into autistic disorders. This way of introducing, assessing and representing disorders has disappeared from today's psychiatric practice, yet it offers a convincing model of the way stereotypes may build up as a result of representations of autism. Considering that much of what society at large learns on disorders on the autism spectrum is produced by representations of autism in novels, TV-series, movies or autobiographies, it will be of vital importance to scrutinize these representations and to check whether or not they are, in fact, misrepresenting autism. In quite a few cases, media representations of talent and special abilities can be said to have contributed to a harmful divergence between the general image of autism and the clinical reality of the autistic condition.

The beautiful otherness of the autistic mind

“…Draaisma (2009) explores the presentation of autism in fictional narrative, particularly in film, and concludes that savant skills are vastly overemphasized in this genre. For the parents of a lower-functioning child with autism who does not show a developed talent, the equation of autism with savant skills can be quite distressing.…”

Autistic people’s perspectives on stereotypes: An interpretative phenomenological analysis

“…One way in which stereotypes can be reinforced is via the media. Media representations of autistic people, for example, often portray them in a negative way (Anjay, Palanivel and Palanivel, 2011;Maras, Mulcahy and Crane, 2015), though an exception is the "autistic savant" (Anjay, Palanivel and Palanivel, 2011;Conn and Bhugra, 2012;Draaisma, 2009;Tang and Bie, 2016). Other stereotypes depict autistic people as either dangerous and uncontrollable or unloved and poorly treated (Jones & Harwood, 2009), in addition to having a range of negative traits such as being disruptive and distracting to others (White, Hillier, Frye et al, 2016), unsocial, quiet and emotionless (Harnum, Duffy and Ferguson, 2007).…”

“…However, the accuracy of autistic stereotypes has been brought into question, with evidence suggesting that the vast majority of autistic people are not savants (Conn and Bhugra, 2012;Draaisma, 2009;Freeman-Loftis, 2015), or emotionless (Tierney, Burns and Kilbey, 2016). With this in mind, Garner, Jones and Harwood (2015) conducted a study using the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS, 2) (Schopler, Van Bourgondien, Wellman et al, 2010) to measure the accuracy of film portrayals of autistic people according to 15 behavioural categories (e.g., relating, listening and intellect).…”

Students’ Stereotypes of Autism

“…Recent content analyses of both Australian and British print media report that autistic people are often portrayed as unstable or dangerous (Huws & Jones, 2011;Jones & Harwood, 2009), and that the prevalence of savant skills is overstated (Jones & Harwood, 2009). Draaisma (2009) similarly notes that it is very difficult to think of an example of a character in a film or television series who is autistic but who does not have some form of savant skill. However, in reality less than 30% of those who are autistic actually possess such a skill (Howlin, Goode, Hutton, & Rutter, 2009).…”