Recently, I coined the neologism ‘psychsplaining’ to try and account for the way those categorised by psych-professionals are often reduced within such relationships to that of the ‘sick role’ (Parsons 1951), with one’s own interpretations of oneself undermined by the ‘expert knowledge’ being projected upon the autistic person, who by default is positioned in a relatively powerless social position of medical ‘patient’.

Source: Full article: Disposable dispositions: reflections upon the work of Iris Marion Young in relation to the social oppression of autistic people

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An essential component of my journey was an identity transformation from being a patient to being an agent.

We’ve built this whole infrastructure about fixing folks, about turning people into passive recipients of treatment and service, of turning people into patients. But being a patient is the most disempowered place a human being can be.

We need to cultivate a sense of agency in people which is the opposite of patient hood.

We have a medical community that’s found a sickness for every single human difference. DSM keeps growing every single year with new ways to be defective, with new ways to be lessened.

Source: The right to learn differently should be a universal human right that’s not mediated by a diagnosis.