The changing face of autism in Brazil

• Published in: Culture, medicine and psychiatry Vol. 39; no. 2; pp. 213 - 234
• Main Authors: Rios, Clarice, Costa Andrada, Barbara
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-06-2015; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Activism; Anthropology; Autism; Autistic Disorder - ethnology; Brazil; Brazil - ethnology; Citizenship; Civil Rights; Clinical Psychology; Cognition; Disability; Disability studies; Dissent; Ethics; Ethnography; Families & family life; Health care networks; Health services; Humans; Hypotheses; Identity politics; Lobbying; Medical personnel; Mental Health; Mental Health - ethnology; Mental Health - legislation & jurisprudence; Mental health services; Mentally Disabled Persons - legislation & jurisprudence; Ontology; Original Paper; Parents; Patient Advocacy - legislation & jurisprudence; Physically Handicapped; Political activism; Political participation; Politics; Psychiatry; Public Health; Public policy; Public Policy - legislation & jurisprudence; Social identity; Social Sciences; Sociology; Brazil; New York; Rio de Janeiro Brazil; United States > US; Disability; Autism; Identity politics; Public policies; Mental health
• ISSN: 0165-005X; 1573-076X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11013-015-9448-5

At the end of 2012, after intensive lobbying by parent activist associations, a federal law recognized autism as a “disability for all legal purposes” in Brazil. Defining autism as a disability was more than a change of legal status to guarantee social benefits. It was also a political maneuver, orchestrated by parent associations, aimed to take the responsibility for treatment away from the public mental health network of services. This article examines the controversies that have set parent associations in direct antagonism with mental health professionals in the public health system. We draw from ethnographic data and theoretical discussions in the field of disability studies to situate these controversies within the context of a larger debate on the relationship between health, rights, and citizenship. We found similarities between the ethical and political goals of parent activists and mental health professionals in Brazil, but we argue that the main cause of dissent is the role that each of these social actors assigns to identity politics in their clinical and political projects.