FRIDAY, 30 MARCH 2012
Could our society be contributing to the rise in autism rates?
According
to recent news reports, the number of school children classified as
being autistic has risen by 56% in the last 5 years.
This is
an enormous number, and controversy is raging over whether the
rise is due to parents pushing for a diagnosis to gain
extra resources for a child showing only mild traits or if there is
an environmental cause for such a dramatic rise.
Studies have
indicated that the criteria for autism is now so broad that
other developmental disorders (for example language developmental
disorders) which, several years ago, would have been diagnosed
separately, now meet the criteria for autism.
The widening of
the criteria for autism indicates that there is no organizing
idea behind the understanding of the condition. From the human
givens perspective, we would suggest that what we term 'caetextia'
('context blindness' a chronic disorder manifesting in the inability
to adjust behaviors or perception to deal appropriately with
interacting variables) is the organizing idea behind autism and
Asperger's.
The reason for the rise in autism is probably due
to a number of different factors, however there is a possibility
that, in addition, the set up of our current culture is actively
favoring the development of both left brained and right brained
autism (what we term 'right brained caetextia').
As we
discussed in a previous post, in Silicon Valley, the technological
centre of the USA, there has been a threefold rise in children
diagnosed with autism in just a decade.
In the same way, it is
possible that in our society as a whole, we
are inadvertently encouraging both left brain and
right brain autism.
Here is a quote from Godhead: The Brain's
Big Bang, explaining the premise behind this idea:
"Another
factor favoring autistic behavior in today's workplace is the growth
of overly prescribed working practices that remove personal
responsibility from people in public services. The management style
in HM Revenue & Customs, and agencies focused on education,
health, policing and law, suit those who are context blind. (For a
person with caetextia, 'responsibility' is just a buzzword - without
multiple processing abilities, their attempts to be responsible often
lack common sense, which after all is just another way of saying,
'seeing the bigger context'.)
Alongside
the growth of working conditions that favor people with left-brained
caetextia, the media may be encouraging right-brained caetextia by
randomly generating fantasies and continually stimulating imagination
in ways that make it harder for people to stay in touch with reality.
Vast numbers now pay a disproportionate amount of attention to
emotionalism in music, television, 'reality' shows, computer games
and on-screen interaction with one another in ways the inhibit the
development of apathy skills and the ability to read multiple
contexts. Characters in soap operas become real for them,
artificially constructed celebrities infiltrate their mental
landscape, and online 'relationships' divorced from empathic
face-to-face communication, mimic psychotic symptoms to become
delusional substitutes for genuine friendships (which involve mutual
understanding and getting innate needs met.)
Although
both types of caetextia occur in society, there is no widespread
understanding of what is required for people to hold the middle
ground: the flexibility of thought that arises from having equal
access to imagination and reason. If we continue to create the
conditions that favor both left-brained and right-brained caetextia,
either by means of the media saturating the population with
emotionalism, or by subjecting people to overly systematized,
computer-controlled and rightly prescribed working environments,
without valuing the middle position, the end result might be that the
window of opportunity for us to evolve further will slam shut."
For
more on this topic and references for the above passage, please see
the book Godhead: The Brain's Big Bang.
Our course on
removing the barriers to learning for those on the ASD spectrum,
Demystifying Autism and Asperger's Syndrome: Practical solutions for
parents, careers, teachers and other professionals, is available from
Human Givens College as an in-house training day in the UK.
http://blog.humangivens.com/2012/03/could-our-society-be-contributing-to.html
This is an enormous number, and controversy is raging over whether the rise is due to parents pushing for a diagnosis to gain extra resources for a child showing only mild traits or if there is an environmental cause for such a dramatic rise.
Studies have indicated that the criteria for autism is now so broad that other developmental disorders (for example language developmental disorders) which, several years ago, would have been diagnosed separately, now meet the criteria for autism.
The widening of the criteria for autism indicates that there is no organizing idea behind the understanding of the condition. From the human givens perspective, we would suggest that what we term 'caetextia' ('context blindness' a chronic disorder manifesting in the inability to adjust behaviors or perception to deal appropriately with interacting variables) is the organizing idea behind autism and Asperger's.
The reason for the rise in autism is probably due to a number of different factors, however there is a possibility that, in addition, the set up of our current culture is actively favoring the development of both left brained and right brained autism (what we term 'right brained caetextia').
As we discussed in a previous post, in Silicon Valley, the technological centre of the USA, there has been a threefold rise in children diagnosed with autism in just a decade.
In the same way, it is possible that in our society as a whole, we are inadvertently encouraging both left brain and right brain autism.
Here is a quote from Godhead: The Brain's Big Bang, explaining the premise behind this idea:
Our course on removing the barriers to learning for those on the ASD spectrum, Demystifying Autism and Asperger's Syndrome: Practical solutions for parents, careers, teachers and other professionals, is available from Human Givens College as an in-house training day in the UK.
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