Forbes, Alexander (2017). Contested understandings of ‘autism’: the view from NSM semantics. Master’s thesis, University of New England.
There are different understandings of Autism Spectrum Disorder in different groups of people, based on knowledge of ASD and individual experience. There exists space, therefore, for a contrastive analysis of different ‘identity group’ understandings. This study proposes to “sketch out” how four distinct identity groups think about a person and a situation upon hearing that this person has “autism”; in other words, what is the overall understanding of autism from the perspective of different identity clusters? While scientific research can provide a starting point in revealing how different “types” of people understand autism, mass media and relevant online discussion boards can provide further evidence to support an internally-driven, “whole-of-experience” perspective. A corpus-assisted discourse analysis of texts in multiple modes is undertaken for the purpose of positing cognitive scenarios, formulated using Natural Semantic Metalanguage, that are hypothesized to be activated, either completely or in components, in four different identity groups upon hearing the phrase X has autism.
Research carried out in consultation with or under the supervision of one or more experienced NSM practitioners
