Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Asperger's Coming Out of Our Ears: Making Sense of a Modern Epidemic

Asperger's Coming Out of Our Ears: Making Sense of a Modern Epidemic Asperger's syndrome (AS) as a diagnostic category has gained enormous popularity and the label is being applied with increasing liberality. While greater awareness of the disorder may be of advantage to certain children and their families, we argue that the over‐inclusive use of the diagnosis may also lead to professional conflicts and ethical dilemmas. Perhaps most concerning of these is that diagnostic ‘generosity’ may exclude children from treatments they would have received if an alternative formulation had been considered. We present clinical scenarios, with special consideration of contextual and intergenerational influences on the children's early lives, and offer alternative conceptualisations. We argue that the new ‘epidemic’ of Asperger's should not be allowed to compromise our professional standards. Assessment should always include a detailed family and developmental history. Finally, we would be interested in feedback from clinicians working in this field. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy Wiley

Asperger's Coming Out of Our Ears: Making Sense of a Modern Epidemic

Download PDF
9 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/wiley/asperger-s-coming-out-of-our-ears-making-sense-of-a-modern-epidemic-TEI5mf0DYt

References (19)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
2008 Australian Association of Family Therapy
ISSN
0814-723X
eISSN
1467-8438
DOI
10.1375/anft.29.1.1
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Asperger's syndrome (AS) as a diagnostic category has gained enormous popularity and the label is being applied with increasing liberality. While greater awareness of the disorder may be of advantage to certain children and their families, we argue that the over‐inclusive use of the diagnosis may also lead to professional conflicts and ethical dilemmas. Perhaps most concerning of these is that diagnostic ‘generosity’ may exclude children from treatments they would have received if an alternative formulation had been considered. We present clinical scenarios, with special consideration of contextual and intergenerational influences on the children's early lives, and offer alternative conceptualisations. We argue that the new ‘epidemic’ of Asperger's should not be allowed to compromise our professional standards. Assessment should always include a detailed family and developmental history. Finally, we would be interested in feedback from clinicians working in this field.

Journal

Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy – Wiley

Published: Mar 1, 2008

There are no references for this article.