If It's Not Broke, Don't Fix It.

This is what baffles me about psychology and psychiatry: how do you determine when someone is mentally "ill" unless you define what is not ill or "normal"?

Aside from easy cases like amnesia or Parkinsons, defining normal seems more about politics, about a dominant group enforcing conformity for no good reason. Until 1973, the American Psychological Association considered homosexuality a disorder. "Gender identity disorder" (which would include transgendered people) is still listed in the APA manual as a sexual deviation. The messiness of determining disorder is what led to an anti-psychiatry movement whose prominent supporters include Thomas Szasz.

Perhaps another disorder included more because of politics than science is autism. No doubt the brain of autistic individuals is different from those who do not have autism. But whether that difference should be called a disease is another issue. Aspies have the incredible ability to retain detail and often develop a particular area of expertise in a subject (like the guy in Rainman). On the other hand, they also have many "anti-social" mannerisms like a repulsion to touch, violent outbursts and repetitive rocking.

The New York Times has a great article today on the debate over autism.