Divergent Learning Diaries

Kemi Badenoch’s 36 page essay titled, ‘Conservatism in Crisis’ has drawn much ire from  the autistic community in the last week.  And rightly so.

Badenoch and her chums, in their quasi manifesto pamphlet outlining everything that is wrong with ‘woke’ Britain, assert that both anxiety and autism are examples of Neurodivergence.   

They then go on to argue that such conditions used to be, presumably in a better time and place, just quietly tolerated, and managed by the affected individuals, but that now, those diagnosed were offered, ‘advantages and protections,’ leaving the reader with the impression that this left them ‘advantaged’ rather than ‘disadvantaged’ by their diagnosis.

In a matter of weeks Badenoch could be the leader of the opposition and it’s of obvious concern to anyone who values inclusion, acceptance and a better quality of life for all that her alarming ableist assertions are on her agenda.  ‘Sinister’ was a word used in a headline by the Disability News Service.   The Guardian went to town with a number of articles and thought pieces, including those by parents who know too well the disadvantages faced by their Neurodivergent children in a system that often feels as though it has actively been designed to exclude them.

The gaslighting here is unreal.

The only real comfort coming from this Badenoch’s disturbing discourse is that the backlash to her comments has been pretty widespread, indicating perhaps that the broad base of media consumers have been paying attention enough to the horror stories related to the thousands of children without appropriate school places and the similar numbers of parents opting out of careers to care for their children as a result.

And the stories that relate to a world where only 30% of Neurodivergent adults are able to hold down jobs.

And the stories that relate to the backlog of thousands of young people in a queue for these diagnoses are therefore not able to access the medical care they require.  Or the right social support.  You know,  the ‘advantages and protections.’?

And the backlash is so important because, despite the ingrained ableism that persist and despite the challenges faced by autistic children and adults trying to thrive in a societal system not designed for them without adequate support, progress towards Neuro-affirmation is happening.  Slowly, but it’s happening all the same.

I’m currently reading Steve Silberman’s ‘Neurotribes.’ This landmark Neuro-affirming work has me gripped.   I’m almost halfway through.  It’s the first example of ND literature that I have personally read that steps away from the kind of ‘lived experience angle’ to plotting a kind of social history of how we came to understand what autism is. It’s quite a dense read but as I was leafing through it this morning, and reflecting on Badenoch’s ableist rhetoric I reflected on the social and historical experiences of autists over the last century in societies who have just not known what to do about neurodivergence. And have struggled to recognise it for what it is.

Silberman’s book, in its early chapters,  explores the almost simultaneous work undertaken by different schools of psychiatric doctors in the first half of the twentieth Century in both Europe and the United States.  The key players at the moment are Hans Asperger (Vienna) and Leo Kanner (Baltimore)  They are by no means heroes in the tale; they are doctors interested by an emerging profile they are both noticing amongst young people and work with their teams to understand what it is they are seeing.  They get stuff wrong, some of their beliefs and theories are irksome but nonetheless they are recognising divergence and they are living in the 1930s.

Asperger was operating in a context where parents like me are ‘relieved’ of their (probably) autistic children, whose behaviours defy the expected norm.   These children were then subjected to the plan conceived by one of Aspreger’s former colleagues, Dr Erwin Jekelius.  Jekelius helped Nazi officials draft a plan to rid the world of children who were different, who had been declared ‘idiots’ and who were a burden to their parents, to society and just generally a risk to the gene pool.  Around 5000 children were victims of the T4 ‘Euthanasia’ programme which served as a blueprint to the Final Solution.  We are all too aware of the significance of this horrific period.  Asperger’s reputation was tarnished by his association with colleagues who either had a hand  in administering the killing of these children, or turned a blind eye.

Kanner’s research refers to the work he did with the ‘feeble-minded’ children he saw at his clinic in Baltimore.  He was unaware of Asperger’s synchronous work.  Kanner worked with a smaller number of subjects and appeared to be interested in not just understanding these ‘unusual’  children but was also trying to understand what could be done to ‘cure’ them.  The guy comes across as a bit of an egotist and the  majority of ‘feeble-minded’ children who were referred to him ended up in brutal schools or asylums where they were subjected to such horrors as electric shock treatment and cocktails of drugs that robbed them of their dignity and character.  They didn’t emerge ‘better’ or ‘cured.’

Both Kanner and Asperger were fascinated by the divergences in behaviours that they were seeing in their young subjects and often excited by the coexistence of genuine talent and in some cases genius that co-existed alongside their tendencies to the ‘unusual.’  Yet these potential trailblazers (Asperger was convinced that many of his subjects had a kind of superior intellect)  were still not feasibility conceived as people who could just slot into life.  Like everyone else.  Also, Kanner, who was a scholar of medical history saw evidence of similar behaviours documented throughout history.  There is one story from an account by a 17th Century Swiss poet of a 7 year old girl from an aristocratic family who ‘avoided contact with people by hiding in closets or running away’ was declared insane, captured and subjected to extreme punishments that led to her death some months after she was incarcerated, much to the relief of her family and community.

To know that History might have chosen to kill your own children for their divergences is a really tough one to digest.  It’s been a hard read but I’ll carry on because learning where ignorance and social engineering can take humanity is the very thing that propels us away from similar mistakes.  Also, I’m fascinated by the global awakening around Neurodivergence that Silberman brilliantly plots.

Some of Leo Kanner’s observations in his subjects are of personal interest to me.  His early studies drew comparisons in his autistic subjects with childhood schizophrenia and referred to his child patients as ‘pre-psychotic.’  The recognition that autism (as it had not yet been coined) could present as similar to known significant psychological conditions highlights the very real challenges that being autistic actually presents.  I’m not sure anyone would reasonably expect such conditions to be managed just ‘by the individual themselves.’  

One of my daughters is currently emerging from a very difficult period associated with her autism.  Having struggled with intense and crippling paranoia her then Doctor (she’s had a few) started her on a low dose of an antipsychotic medication usually administered to people diagnosed with schizophrenia.  We are not simply talking about ‘advantages and protections.’  This is a significant medical intervention for my child.  She’s thirteen.

Let me be clear.  I am not suggesting that Badenoch’s pamphlet is promoting a return to the horrors of the mid twentieth century.  But I am raising the alarm here.  Such rhetoric risks opening up discourse that will set the ND community back. It denigrates the very real challenges and suffering experienced by thousands of children in this country alone. Right now.  I for one won’t remain silent on this point.  And anyone who believes in equality shouldn’t either. We still have too far to go.

This summer, following the horrific Southport Murders, my heart sank when the UK Police announced, possibly in an attempt to divert vile social media responses away from blaming immigration, that the perpetrator was autistic.  My gut response was to fear that this might double back on the wider autistic community.  That autism was something that should be feared.

The ND community spoke out.  This time the mob didn’t react.  (Perhaps because, sadly,  they had somewhere else to direct their hatred.) 

But there is still the sense that our community needs to be hypervigilant because there are those with influence who still don’t get it.  There are those with influence who would use divisiveness to the detriment of our children.

On a positive note, all I have seen and read this last week, in response to ‘Conservatism in Crisis’ is disdain that in our time, the Neurodivergent Community should be so blatantly minimalised and misrepresented.  

And this fills me with hope.