You know, I read that link with mixed feelings, because I think that hardly anyone is asking the big questions:
who is the research for? whose interests is it primarily serving? in what context is it taking place? why has all the research to date been of so little value to people on the spectrum? are ASD people used in these studies subjects or objects? who funds different research and for what ultimate purposes? where is our research, by us, with us, about us and for us? how is the past and status quo of benefit to ASD people?
It seems to me that the overall goal to date is to find "the cause" of ASD - just as researchers have looked for years (often in the wrong places) for "the cause" of cancer. (Note: I am not saying ASD is equivalent to cancer, NOT AT ALL - merely using an analogy of using a lot of money and time to produce relatively little useful result).
Off the top of my head I cannot think of a single study that has produced findings of lasting benefit and value to people on the spectrum. I can think of hundreds of over-claimed examples that seem primarily to have been undertaken to advance the researcher's career path and future funding.
So I am cynic in this circumstance and given the overall underlying ethos of bulk of the existing research, I may find difficult to lament the reduced funding for it. Autism Speaks must always be evaluated cautiously for the underlying motive of funding research in often covert ways to obtain results it wishes to receive and use to promote its propaganda.
14 Aug 2015, 4:17 pm
