Bygone Choices?
Everywhere I look or read, I get embroiled in linguistic discourse on acceptable terms used to refer to autistic people. I have written many times on this blog that a change in wordage when referring to autistic people is needed. It is a core issue for me, as language shape thoughts and attitudes towards those deemed Other within society. Otherment is due to linguistic difference and already marginalized people are more marginalized by the words that are applied. Autist , to my mind, carries too much historical weight to be used in polite conversation. The term itself was coined in 1911 by Swiss psychologist Eugen Bleuler, who derived it from Greek autos ‘self’, referring to schizophrenia in the vernacular of the time. In nearly the century since Ukranian pediatrician Grunya Sukhareva wrote of autism (1925), much has been attempted to better the lives of the autistic population. At least in theory. Seldom are autistic people herded into mental institutions; th...