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Autism Acceptance and Mental Health

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders

Definition

Acceptance, appreciation, and acknowledgement of autism as part of a person, both in terms of self-acceptance and how accepting other people are. Perceiving a lack of acceptance could relate to poorer mental health for autistic people.

Historical Background

Historically, the narratives around autism often focus on deficits, perhaps stemming from its first conception where Kanner (1943) described “autistic disturbances” and autistic behaviors are often pathologized as not “normal” (Milton and Bracher 2013). For many years, autism research has been dominated by biological studies (e.g., genetic and neuroscientific research) and treatment or intervention studies (Pellicano et al. 2014) which likely proliferates the narrative that autism is something which should be cured rather than accepted. In more recent years, the ethics behind such autism research has been questioned (Pellicano and Stears 2011), with growing acknowledgment of the need for a shift in the narrative...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland, UK

    Eilidh Cage

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  1. Eilidh Cage
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Correspondence to Eilidh Cage .

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  1. Yale Child Study Center, New Haven, CT, USA

    Fred R. Volkmar

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Cage, E. (2020). Autism Acceptance and Mental Health. In: Volkmar, F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_102427-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_102427-1

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