The Autism Identity Crisis

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/pom.2026.313

Keywords:

Autism, DSM-5, Diagnosis

Abstract

The word autism is fracturing under two incompatible demands. In the DSM-5, it denotes a disorder that by definition requires clinically significant impairment. In the autistic self-advocacy movement, it denotes an identity not reducible to deficit. This paper argues the conflict is not between advocates and clinicians but a diagnostic crisis: a category built for one purpose confronting a broader reality revealed by science. Network neuroscience increasingly describes autism as a unified pattern of neurological variation whose strengths and differences share one architecture. The paper proposes decoupling ICD-10-CM F84.0 from DSM impairment criteria and redeveloping it as a non-pathologizing record of the neurotype, opening services to all autistic people, while establishing a DSM category of Autism-Related Disorders to capture associated conditions and govern intervention where impairment warrants it.

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Published

2026-10-07

How to Cite

Merahn, S. (2026). The Autism Identity Crisis. Philosophy of Medicine, 7(1). https://doi.org/10.5195/pom.2026.313

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 1 (2026)

Section

Perspectives

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Copyright (c) 2026 Steven Merahn

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