‘The line between intervention and abuse’ – autism and applied behaviour analysis

History of the Human Sciences 30 (2):107-126 (2017)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This article outlines the emergence of ABA (Applied Behaviour Analysis) in the mid-20th century, and the current popularity of ABA in the anglophone world. I draw on the work of earlier historians to highlight the role of Ole Ivar Lovaas, the most influential practitioner of ABA. I argue that reception of his initial work was mainly positive, despite concerns regarding its efficacy and use of physical aversives. Lovaas’ work, however, was only cautiously accepted by medical practitioners until he published results in 1987. Many accepted the results as validation of Lovaas’ research, though both his methods and broader understanding of autism had shifted considerably since his early work in the 1960s. The article analyses the controversies surrounding ABA since the early 1990s, considering in particular criticisms made by autistic people in the ‘neurodiversity movement’. As with earlier critics, some condemn the use of painful aversives, exemplified in the campaign against the use of shock therapy at the Judge Rotenberg Center. Unlike earlier, non-autistic critics, however, many in this movement reject the ideological goals of ABA, considering autism a harmless neurological difference rather than a pathology. They argue that eliminating benign autistic behaviour through ABA is impermissible, owing to the individual psychological harm and the wider societal impact. Finally, I compare the claims made by the neurodiversity movement with those made by similar 20th- and 21st-century social movements.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Aristotle, Autism, and Applied Behavior Analysis.Todd M. Furman & Alfred Tuminello Jr - 2015 - Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology 22 (4):253-262.
Autism, Empathy and Questions of Moral Agency.Timothy Krahn & Andrew Fenton - 2009 - Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 39 (2):145-166.
The Philosophy of Autism.Jami L. Anderson & Simon Cushing (eds.) - 2012 - Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
The Role of Associative Sector in Intervention of Children with Autism.Mihaela Grasu - 2015 - Revista Romaneasca pentru Educatie Multidimensionala 7 (1):117-128.
Interactions of fathers and their children with autism1.Ewa Pisula - 2008 - Polish Psychological Bulletin 39 (1):35-41.

Analytics

Added to PP
2017-07-21

Downloads
193 (#95,006)

6 months
25 (#96,723)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?