Autism and the Empathy Epidemic
Threading an enquiry through debates in neurodiversity scholarship and disability studies as well as film theory, this open access book challenges the widespread idea that autism is an epidemic characterised predominantly by a deficit of empathy, arguing that the reverse is true: we are living throu...
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| Format: | Online |
| Langue: | anglais |
| Publié: |
Bloomsbury Publishing (UK)
2026
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| Sujets: | |
| Accès en ligne: | ONIX_20260415T184305_9781350345089_2 |
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| _version_ | 1869524993128267776 |
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| author | Harbord, Janet |
| author_browse | Harbord, Janet |
| author_facet | Harbord, Janet |
| author_sort | Harbord, Janet |
| collection | Directory of Open Access Books |
| description | Threading an enquiry through debates in neurodiversity scholarship and disability studies as well as film theory, this open access book challenges the widespread idea that autism is an epidemic characterised predominantly by a deficit of empathy, arguing that the reverse is true: we are living through an empathy epidemic in which autism is the outcast. In 1908, the British psychologist, Edward Titchener, translated the German term Einfühlung into the English language as ‘empathy’, around the same time that Eugen Bleuler coined the term ‘autism’ for a group of symptoms subset to an emerging classification of schizophrenia. Empathy became a useful tool to describe relations between people in a clinical context, but in the process of its incorporation into psychology, it shed its rich sensory meaning from Einfühlung as ‘feeling-into’ weather systems, architectural forms, and artworks. A remarkable reversal takes place in the first part of the twentieth century whereby empathy becomes an intra-human ethical act, and autism emerges as its inverse. Digging up and examining the buried relation between autism with an earlier form of ‘empathy’, this book argues that autism, like cinema, models an ethical apprehension of the more-than-human world. The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by The Wellcome Trust. |
| format | Online |
| id | doab-20.500.12854ir-175982 |
| institution | Directory of Open Access Books |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publishDateRange | 2026 |
| publishDateSort | 2026 |
| publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing (UK) |
| publisherStr | Bloomsbury Publishing (UK) |
| record_format | ojs |
| spelling | doab-20.500.12854ir-1759822026-04-20T09:28:12Z Autism and the Empathy Epidemic Harbord, Janet Film Neurodiversity Neurotypical Neurodivergent Cognition Neuroqueer Eugen Bleuler On Body and Soul Ildiko Enyedi The Rider Chloe Zhao Disability Disability studies Simon Baron-Cohen thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBF Social and ethical issues::JBFM Disability: social aspects thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MB Medicine: general issues::MBS Medical sociology thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts::ATF Films, cinema::ATFA Film history, theory or criticism thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MK Medical specialties, branches of medicine::MKJ Neurology and clinical neurophysiology::MKJA Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MB Medicine: general issues::MBN Public health and preventive medicine::MBNH Personal and public health / health education thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBF Social and ethical issues::JBFA Social discrimination and social justice Threading an enquiry through debates in neurodiversity scholarship and disability studies as well as film theory, this open access book challenges the widespread idea that autism is an epidemic characterised predominantly by a deficit of empathy, arguing that the reverse is true: we are living through an empathy epidemic in which autism is the outcast. In 1908, the British psychologist, Edward Titchener, translated the German term Einfühlung into the English language as ‘empathy’, around the same time that Eugen Bleuler coined the term ‘autism’ for a group of symptoms subset to an emerging classification of schizophrenia. Empathy became a useful tool to describe relations between people in a clinical context, but in the process of its incorporation into psychology, it shed its rich sensory meaning from Einfühlung as ‘feeling-into’ weather systems, architectural forms, and artworks. A remarkable reversal takes place in the first part of the twentieth century whereby empathy becomes an intra-human ethical act, and autism emerges as its inverse. Digging up and examining the buried relation between autism with an earlier form of ‘empathy’, this book argues that autism, like cinema, models an ethical apprehension of the more-than-human world. The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by The Wellcome Trust. 2026-04-20T09:28:11Z 2026-04-20T09:28:11Z 2026-04-16T11:01:59Z 2025 book ONIX_20260415T184305_9781350345089_2 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/112357 9781350345089 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/175982 eng Critical Interventions in the Medical and Health Humanities open access Bloomsbury Publishing (UK) Bloomsbury Academic b7fec79e-c133-4cb3-9544-88060a4d4e06 9781350345089 Bloomsbury Academic 136 London open access |
| spellingShingle | Film Neurodiversity Neurotypical Neurodivergent Cognition Neuroqueer Eugen Bleuler On Body and Soul Ildiko Enyedi The Rider Chloe Zhao Disability Disability studies Simon Baron-Cohen thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBF Social and ethical issues::JBFM Disability: social aspects thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MB Medicine: general issues::MBS Medical sociology thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts::ATF Films, cinema::ATFA Film history, theory or criticism thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MK Medical specialties, branches of medicine::MKJ Neurology and clinical neurophysiology::MKJA Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MB Medicine: general issues::MBN Public health and preventive medicine::MBNH Personal and public health / health education thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBF Social and ethical issues::JBFA Social discrimination and social justice Harbord, Janet Autism and the Empathy Epidemic |
| title | Autism and the Empathy Epidemic |
| title_full | Autism and the Empathy Epidemic |
| title_fullStr | Autism and the Empathy Epidemic |
| title_full_unstemmed | Autism and the Empathy Epidemic |
| title_short | Autism and the Empathy Epidemic |
| title_sort | autism and the empathy epidemic |
| topic | Film Neurodiversity Neurotypical Neurodivergent Cognition Neuroqueer Eugen Bleuler On Body and Soul Ildiko Enyedi The Rider Chloe Zhao Disability Disability studies Simon Baron-Cohen thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBF Social and ethical issues::JBFM Disability: social aspects thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MB Medicine: general issues::MBS Medical sociology thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts::ATF Films, cinema::ATFA Film history, theory or criticism thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MK Medical specialties, branches of medicine::MKJ Neurology and clinical neurophysiology::MKJA Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MB Medicine: general issues::MBN Public health and preventive medicine::MBNH Personal and public health / health education thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBF Social and ethical issues::JBFA Social discrimination and social justice |
| topic_facet | Film Neurodiversity Neurotypical Neurodivergent Cognition Neuroqueer Eugen Bleuler On Body and Soul Ildiko Enyedi The Rider Chloe Zhao Disability Disability studies Simon Baron-Cohen thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBF Social and ethical issues::JBFM Disability: social aspects thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MB Medicine: general issues::MBS Medical sociology thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts::ATF Films, cinema::ATFA Film history, theory or criticism thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MK Medical specialties, branches of medicine::MKJ Neurology and clinical neurophysiology::MKJA Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MB Medicine: general issues::MBN Public health and preventive medicine::MBNH Personal and public health / health education thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBF Social and ethical issues::JBFA Social discrimination and social justice |
| url | ONIX_20260415T184305_9781350345089_2 |
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