Dissertation
The autistic subject, Lacanian foreclosure and neurological displacement
University of Iowa
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Iowa
Autumn 2024
DOI: 10.25820/etd.007775
Abstract
This dissertation puts forward the notion of neurological displacement as a corrective means to rethinking autistic subjectivity from the perspective of individual experience. In particular, this dissertation utilizes the theoretical work and personal narratives of Dr. Temple Grandin and Sean Barron as a means to rethinking autism’s unique ability to create insight to understanding human development and ability in a different manner. Beginning with a critical review of the “lack” of theory-of-mind attributed to autistic children by Cognitive Scientists, to the belief by Lacanian psychoanalysis that autistic subjects are “foreclosed” from the affirmative aspects of language development, this dissertation demonstrates how autistic individuals come to form a unique theory-of-mind about themselves that forms the basis for an autistic psyche. This aspect of autism research has gone largely undeveloped and this dissertation seeks to find a corrective to this problem in autism research.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- The autistic subject, Lacanian foreclosure and neurological displacement
- Creators
- Christopher Clough-Hunter
- Contributors
- Tim Havens (Advisor)Steve Duck (Committee Member)Carrie Figdor (Committee Member)Jillian Reiher (Committee Member)Lara Mazurski (Committee Member)
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Iowa
- Degree in
- Interdisciplinary Studies
- Date degree season
- Autumn 2024
- DOI
- 10.25820/etd.007775
- Publisher
- University of Iowa
- Number of pages
- v, 198 pages
- Copyright
- Copyright 2024 Christopher Clough-Hunter
- Language
- English
- Date submitted
- 04/23/2024
- Description bibliographic
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 192-198).
- Public Abstract (ETD)
The author has spent the better part of the past ten years working with children to adults with autism within the Human Services. While working with various autistic folks to help them find jobs, maintain social relationships, and discover insight into themselves, this author began to realize the disconnect between thinking about autism (ASD) in the academy and dealing with autistic people on a day-to-day basis. It was this disconnect that became the inspiration for this dissertation, where the author sought to find a corrective to better understand autism from the perspective of the autistic person and their experience. When the author realized that many of the autistic individuals that he worked with did not fully comport to the predictive theories about autistic people in general, a better of understanding was required. As such, the author coins the term “neurological displacement” to underscore the neurological difference that a person with autism will have in relation to the development of their neurologically diverse brain.
- Academic Unit
- Interdisciplinary Studies Program
- Record Identifier
- 9984774549802771
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