Autism awareness has increased in recent years in part because it is marked by
confusion and controversy. The confusion and controversy stem from the fact that there
are many beliefs about autism but little agreement. In this dissertation I examined the
rhetoric produced by three primary groups?professional autism experts, caregivers to
children with autism and mainstream media. In particular, I studied how each group
explains autism. Explanations are vehicles for persuasion; they advance particular
viewpoints about an illness.
I conducted a rhetorical analysis of the three discourses produced by these
groups, highlighting the most cohesive themes to emerge from the discourse. To study
professional autism experts? explanations, I analyzed articles in autism?s flagship
research journal and research articles from other journals and key books for additional
insight. A computer metaphor guided expert explanations of autism. To define autism
through one of most advanced and culturally accepted technological devices lent
significant credibility to the explanations. Next, I studied the caregiver explanations, first conducting interviews with 19 parents to children with autism and then I analyzed
the transcripts. Caregivers described autism as a social pathology; their children with
autism were different and distant, or alien-like. The pathology affected people with
autism, their caregivers and their families, many other neuro-typical people, and it also
determined the course of treatment for the person with autism. Finally, mainstream
media often explained autism in terms of its conflicts, framing its explanations of autism
with a war metaphor. The vaccine debate received a significant attention, recharacterizing
the role of medical institutions and health practitioners. Caregivers
became the heroes, using their personal experiences as weapons against healthcare
practitioners and their science. Caregivers also dealt with the invasion of autism,
struggling for ways to return their children closer to the boundary that exists between the
child with autism and the neuro-typical child.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2009-05-315 |
| Date | 16 January 2010 |
| Creators | Jodlowski, Denise M. |
| Contributors | Sharf, Barbara F., Aune, James A. |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
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