Syndrome or difference: a critical review of medical conceptualisations of Asperger’s syndrome.

We live in a world of vast social differences. People of different ages, cultures, religions, gender and sexual orientation have, and indeed are expected to have, distinct differences in their behaviour, and in the way that they see the world. Asperger’s syndrome (AS) is no different. People with AS have different personality types and have different perceptions of the world. Yet medical conceptualisations of AS have led to it being viewed as a deficit, a ‘pervasive developmental disorder’ that should be diagnosed and treated to allow the person to function in ‘normal’ society. Research has focused on finding neurological and genetic ‘abnormalities’ to explain what is in fact a complex pattern of behaviour, no different from the behavioural differences between any social group. This paper attempts to provide a critical review of the literature behind medical conceptualisations of AS, and will seek to find a new conceptualisation, drawing on recent criticisms of its medicalisation, to shift the barriers to view AS, not as a medical condition but as a social difference that should be accepted, not reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]