The term autism was coined in 1911. At that time, it was simply used as an identifying symptom of schizophrenia, another mental illness discovered in 1887. It was not considered its own formal diagnosis until 1980, and even then there was not a clear-cut list of features and traits required to be considered autistic. Early on in the times where mental health was first being studied, anyone who was thought of as different was immediately locked away and subjected to inhumane treatment. Over the years, more and more attention has been placed on mental health research, including research on autism. There have been many advancements in the field, leading to a more widespread understanding and acceptance of the disorder and a rise in the accessibility of everyday life to all those with a disability. The road from autism being a definition of another diagnosis to the well-known, formal diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder would not have been possible were it not for government investment, symptom perception in the public eye, and scientific research.
Initially, the government took a very harsh stance against people with mental illnesses. It was scary to face people with such prominent differences from the majority of the world, so it became the norm to lock up these people and keep them away from the rest of the population. They were thrown into a life with terrible conditions and no support for what they needed. The government went as far as to deem the sterilization of people with disabilities legal, and even framed it as a protective measure for the rest of the public. After many years, more was learned about mental disabilities and the government completely shifted its perspective. It began enacting laws to help the people in the community who need a little more support. Laws such as the Community Mental Health Act, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act were all put in place to help assist people with disabilities and ensure that they are provided with the help they need in their daily lives.
In addition to the political shift from controlling to supporting those with mental disabilities, the general public also had a change of heart after more was learned about mental health. Back when institutionalization was at its peak popularity, it wasn’t sustained by the government alone. The mindset of the population at that time agreed that people with mental illnesses were bad and should be kept away from everyone else. Even after sending people to institutions became illegal, the public still had concerns about individuals with autism. Some thought that the disorder was caused by bad parenting and that the way to fix it was with a strict system of punishment and rewards for certain actions. This idea held strong for many years, causing people with autism to be mistreated and misunderstood. What really helped flip the perspective of the world was passionate people who were willing to tell their story. A few well-known people slowly started stepping up and sharing how autism affected their lives and the lives of their loved ones. Coming from people that the public knew and loved, these stories portrayed autism in a more humanistic light than ever before. This newfound public awareness and care for people with autism helped push the limits of research even further, allowing more great advancements to be made.
As crucial as government policies and public perception of symptoms are, they would not have been sufficient to support the growth in the field of autism. They needed the help of science. Autism would have remained a simple defining word of schizophrenia and no other discoveries would have been made about it if it weren’t for curious, dedicated scientists. Over the course of many research studies and advancements in readily available scientific instruments, scientists have created and refined many theories, tests, and hypotheses about how autism works. Because of the scientific discoveries that have been made over the years, we now have a better understanding of why autistic people feel and act the way they often do and how we can support them with everything they need.
Today, there is an immense amount of resources available for autistic people, and there is a much more widespread acceptance for those diagnosed with the disorder and for those with mental disabilities in general. However, none of this could have been possible without the combined help from the advances in scientific knowledge, the public expressing their thoughts, and the government changing their policies. Because these three things have grown together and balanced each other out over the history of autism, we were able to arrive at the modern-day classification of autism - Autism Spectrum Disorder.