Going Beyond the Catch-22 of Autism Diagnosis and Research. The Moral Implications of (Not) Asking “What Is Autism?”

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Bervoets, J. & Hens, K. (2020). Going Beyond the Catch-22 of Autism Diagnosis and Research. The Moral Implications of (Not) Asking “What Is Autism?”. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 529193-529193. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.529193

Journal or book title
Frontiers in Psychology
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Volume
11
Pages
529193-529193
Article number
529193
Publication date: 10 Nov 2020 Added to AutiHub: 4 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

This publication is integrated into AutiHub through:

Authors

Publication authors
2
Publication authors identified as autistic
1 / 2 (50.0%)
  1. Jo Bervoets *
  2. Kristien Hens

Abstract

Psychiatric diagnoses such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are primarily attributed on the basis of behavioral criteria. The aim of most of the biomedical research on ASD is to uncover the underlying mechanisms that lead to or even cause pathological behavior. However, in the philosophical and sociological literature, it has been suggested that autism is also to some extent a 'social construct' that cannot merely be reduced to its biological explanation. We show that a one-sided adherence to either a biological or a social explanation leads to a moral dilemma, a Catch-22, for autistics and for those living with them. Such explanations close the space for self-identifying as autistic and at the same time being considered to be in good mental health. They foreclose the possibility of making sense of the lived experience of (and with) autistics. In this paper we argue that such lack of space for moral imagination inherently leads to scientific stalemate. We propose that one can only go beyond this stalemate by taking an ethical stance in theorizing, one that enables better intersubjective understanding. Only on such a view can behavior and biology be linked without either disconnecting them or reducing the one to the other.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 3 Oct 2026 01:00.

Cited references
64
With a DOI
59
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
5
6 / 64 (9.4%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
4 / 64 (6.2%)
References with detected author names
63 / 64 (98.4%)
Without detected author names
1
Without a structured title
3
Without a stable identifier
5
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
1
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
113
From DOI or external metadata
113
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
45 / 113 (39.8%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 68 / 113 (60.2%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
6 / 113 (5.3%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 6 / 45 (13.3%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 5 / 93 (5.4%).
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