“Autist”
December 21, 2006 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Charlotte Moore uses this word, “autist,” throughout George and Sam: Two Boys, One Family, and Autism. “The autist is differently wired” (p. 85); “Autists are often disobedient without being truly naughty” (p. 130); “It’s common among autists to favor certain textures: (p. 191); “As I hope I will by now have made clear, the autist can have an abnormal response to absolutely anything, be it ever so mundane or apparently inoffensive” (p. 265).
I myself do not feel comfortable using “autist,” which seems to be more in use in England and Australia. The word does seem a more convenient shorthand than “child with autism” or “autistic child.” Do you use “autist”?
I had never heard that term before. It sounds a little awkward, but that might just be because I have never heard it before.
We normally just say autistic kid.
The first place I saw it was on Autism Diva’s blog.
I like it, it says nothing about the age of the individual in question, and it’s shorter to say than “autistic person”.
I’ve been known to call myself an autist, particularly when making a point about person first language.
Like an autist with femaleness, brunetteness, a tendency towards inversion and petiteness, and affected by eastern european traits.
Stuff like that.
Paul Collins uses “autist” a great deal in Not Even Wrong as well. I had the sense that it was a British-ism. (Collins is not British himself, but I believe he has British roots.)
I have used it before but ‘autistic’ sounds more pleasing IMO. but I dont have an objection to autist.
The thing about “autist” is that it’s a noun, while “autistic” is an adjective. You can use it as a noun, but “autist” leaves no ambiguity as to what part of speech it is, and how it functions in a sentence.
Julia’s exactly right. Describing a person as an “autist” is a bit on the totalizing/essentializing side, and it strikes me as having “autist” being compared to “human.” Describing someone as “an autistic” at least allows for some sort of diversity. I know I’d rather be described as “a gay man” rather than “a gay” and that in no way implies that I’d rather be called “a person with gayness” (which would have me reaching for a bucket).
It’s sort of analogous to talking about someone as a member of the “democrat party” or the “Jew culture.” The nouning of the adjective projects a negative connotation, no matter what it does to the denotation. BTW, the distinction between connotation and denotation is a long-recognized phenomenon in linguistics, not a form of modern “political correctness.”
I kind of like “autist” as a word, but my brain always tries to parse it as “one who auts,” which makes it hard to take too seriously.
Going back to Classical Greek, there is a word, autites, found in Aristotle fragment 668, that means “by oneself, alone.” Autites is also found in some writers of comedy and means “home-made wine”; it is also used as such in the medical writer Hippocrates’s “The Sacred Disease” (which is epilepsy), 3.14.
A number of years ago, I was caught up in debates about whether or not to “use the hyphen”: Should one say “Asian American” (in which Asian is an adjective, with the implication that one is an American of Asian background), or “Asian-American” (in which one is referring to a person who is both Asian and American). The similarity that I see in this with the word “autist” is whether or not one sees “Asianness” or “autism” (”autism-ness”) as “essential” to a person.
In my own writing, I go back and forth between using “autistic person/child” and child/person “with autism.”
Yes, just recently I began using “autist.” For years I used “autistic” as a noun, as is common in the US, but it always felt awkward. Several months ago it finally irritated me enough to think it through. If a person who is “artistic” is an “artist,” then a “person with autism” must be an… So I Googled “autist.” It makes sense to me.
ARGAGUUUHGHN!!! SAM… WHERE SAM… BROTHER???
Ever tried to write an essay of not more than x words about autism? I end up constantly repeating the phrase “children with autism” until I want to scream. The Great And Good over here won’t let us use “autist” – then they tell us we must be concise!
Let’s stop splitting hairs – it’s a handy term, and I defy anybody to cite one real-life example of anybody suffering as a result of its use. “Autist” reminds me or “artist” which feels positive. It never entered my head to look down on anybody thus labelled.
Since writing this post I’ve changed my thoughts about the term. I don’t quite feel comfortable about writing it yet but those “with autism” phrases pile up…….