Revealed: Who "Really" Coined "Neurodiversity"? An evidence based corrective

Blume? Singer?

or...

Turtles All The Way Down?

An Actual Correction of a Scurrilous Libel

(based on actual original documents!)

  Spoiler: It was me!

I refer to the scurrilous, erroneous and self-serving trashtake of my work by the two most prominent Northern Hemisphere academic Johnny-Come-Latelies to the #Neurodiversity discourse, Robert J Chapman, Nick Walker, and their 4 acolytes. They promote their confabulations as :

An "overdue correction" on the origins of neurodiversity theory".

         (Scare quotes mine. It's actually a "premature ..."... oh, never mind...)

How did this seemingly envious crew manage to get their mishmash of wishfulthinking and confirmation-bias past the - so far nameless -  purportedly "expert" fact-checkers of the highly esteemed Sage Journals: Autism? 

Alas, when I complained to the publishers that they had been misled, I had a visitation from the mighty Sage Corp's inhouse team of Legal Beagles who retorted with what appeared to be a threatening letter. But who am I to know what a threatening letter from lawyers looks like? I have never had one before.  But

 Dammit, Sage Journals have spawned a whole new industry
 based on my original work! 

Soooo not nice of them!

Meanwhile, thanks to Sage's gullibility, my brief holiday from living below the poverty line is over. But don't cry for me, America, UK, wherever...  Fortunately I live in Australia, which has a relatively more human welfare system than what goes down in the US and UK.  Thus, I live in secure, albeit neglected, Public Housing and receive the Age Pension.  So at least I can't end up on the streets living in a cardboard box on a diet of tinned baked beans. 

You can see the Sage 6's poorly researched allegations and my factual rebuttal on Dropbox in "blow by blow" tabular format. 

• Dropbox: Rebuttal of Sage Publication claims in annotated and commented essay
• Dropbox: Detailed paragraph by paragraph rebuttal in tabular form
  Stop Press: Oops! Sorry! you can't access my Dropbox because I can't even afford to pay the subscription fee. Since Sage published the calumnies of these contenders, I appear to have been cancelled, and people seem afraid to hire me. I am looking into Google Docs which appears to be free, and has better tools. 

So this new generation of upwardly mobile scholars and academics identify themselves as a group of “6 International Scholars of Neurodiversity”. 

"International"? Quite an over-reach for a mob of Brits and Yanks. But what can we expect of the relics of the former British Empire? It seems they haven't got used to the fact that the days of empire are over. 

As a Southern Hemisphere scholar I'd like to issue the first of my own correctives: this crew may more accurately be described by a more nuanced subtitle: one which references what used to be known as "Northern Hemisphere Cultural Imperialism". But I couldn't think of a suitable acronym for 

 "6 Unreconstructed Northern Anglo-Colonialist Pretenders to The Neurodiversity Crown"

So for brevity I will refer to this crew as "The Sage 6".  Though you may soon conclude that they have shown anything but "sagacity".

Given the error-laden claptrap this collective have dished up, any academic worth their salt might deduce that the Sage 6 are singularly devoid of the most basic research skills let alone ethics. And even logic, as I will outline below. But for the grandfather of all absurdities, see  down below, "The Final Absurdity" that got past Sage's esteemed editors".

The gang of 6 are: 

• Dr Robert J Chapman, the Young Pretender to the neurodiversity crown,  
  Hey Robert, be my guest! Take it if you want it that badly, for you will find that "heavy is the head that wears the crown".
  
  
• the Not So Young (despite his very fetching avatar ... depicted below) American author Nick Walker.  PS. I don't do pronouns on command. If someone does not respect me, why should I respect their demands?
   
• ... and their 4 acolytes

What might have motivated the Sage 6?

Their beatup is rumoured to be motivated by a "Revenge of the Trans" vendetta, but who am I to say? 

You may ask what my "crime" was to invite such vicious payback. You can see the answer here. 

Sage Publications Inc.'s Defence

According to Sage's publishers, their purported fact-checkers are "people with expertise in the matter". 

I'm still waiting to find out who these so-called "experts" are. Whoever they are, Sage's highly experienced editors might surely have had the nous to realise that these people might not have access to my original documents and correspondence. Which they absolutely do not!

And to add insult to injury, Sage have sooled their dedicated in-house legal team onto me, who have sent me some (very deniably) threatening letters. Although who am I to decide what feels threatening to me in the face of Sage's learned legal counsel?

As I already explained, I cannot afford a legal team to go up against a publishing juggernaut like the mighty multinational corporation Sage Publications Inc. 

My correction of an actual Disrepresentation

I begin on a far from trivial correction,: 

The Sage 6 are hardly “International” scholars. 

American + British does not = “Internationality”.
It adds up to North-Centrism aka
Northern Hemisphere Cultural Hegemony

The 6 contenders rely heavily on two shaky platforms:

1. The, dare I say, resentful so-called “evidence” of a non-scholar, Martijn Dekker, whose ignorance of academic process in the social sciences should be glaringly obvious to any academic. But somehow the Sage 6 fell for it anyway. For Dekker's information, every academic thesis undergoes a comprehensive ethics review before acceptance. From this, it can be deduced that my thesis was checked and accepted.  I have rebutted Dekker’s absurd confirmation-biased confabulations here. Not only are they libelling me, but they are libelling my university. 
2. A lot of freewheeling assumptions about the role of American freelance journalist Harvey Blume in the development of the term Neurodiversity.  All of which can be traced back to the work of Wikipedia’s amateur “editors”. 

Spoiler: I have 100s of pages of correspondence with Blume and we only talked about Neurodiversity a few times (shown below). Believe it or not, we had other matters that interested us more than petty academic rivalries*.

* To make it absolutely clear, our relationship was collegial not romantic 

To underscore: I am not an academic. I chose not to be. Like anything in life, academia has its strengths and weaknesses. I found it both inspiring and suffocating. The senior academics at my university certainly did not "get" that I was actually creating a new paradigm in disability studies (sorry, Nick Walker, in 1998, mate) which at that time was only understood within the limited categories of: either  Physical, Intellectual or the dilly bag of everything else  "Mental Illness" to which autistics were consigned. It's understandable that at the time, my supervisors did not "get" that I had developed a new paradigm. Neither did it occur to me. But career academics are very discomfited by paradigm shifts, for obvious reasons. And so, to Wikipedia... 

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wikipedia is not an academic resource

While we can blame Wikipedia and its amateurs, so much more culpable are any lazy academics who venture to use Wikipedia as a research authority or even as a research gateway.

I would hope the 6 academics have not been relying on Wikipedia's nameless and self-appointed northern "editors" given their dubious qualifications. And that's assuming these individuals even have any. Wikipedia’s scandal-loving amateurs have been playing around with my entries for going on 3 decades now. I long ago gave up trying to set the record straight with them. 

I notice the Sage 6's pejorative allegations have even been inserted into the item on Neurodiversity, and most disgustingly into my actual biography. And they or their agents have even inserted themselves.  I have registered a complaint with Wikipedia, but it seems the good ship Wikipedia is deserted... 

Sexism too?

I cannot help wondering if it is completely beyond Wikipedia's amateur so-called "editors" to imagine that someone who is neither American nor Male can nevertheless be capable of coming up with a "Big Idea" all by ourselves!

Reflexivity

Click to enlarge if not familiar
with the term 

BTW, academics working in the social sciences are required to practice reflexivity and question their own motives. I commend this practice to the Sage 6. 

As a non-academic blogger, Dekker is of course free to throw self-reflection to the winds and write whatever fantasies he dreams up. But academics are liable if they take amateurs on trust because. 

Harvey Blume

If the authors had shown even a modicum of common sense, they might have made some pertinent enquiries. They might have found out that I corresponded with Harvey Blume for many years from 1997 onwards. Indeed I believe I shared this information years ago with Chapman. I need tech support to get back into my archives, but I can't afford it, as I already explained. 

I have retained my correspondence with Blume, which shows, unsurprisingly, that he was a jobbing journo and knew nothing about disability politics or the Social Model of Disability until I educated him to the extent that he was remotely interested. He learned the term "neurodiversity" from me. He wrote about it once or twice and moved on, never to return. He did not cite me, nor, as a generalist op-ed writer in mass media was he required to do so. 

My rivals have even turned Blume's ommission into another scourge to beat me with. It did not bother me in the least at the time. Because, who knew that 20 years later, the Neurodiversity banner would actually go viral?

Sleuths, private eyes, legal eagles are welcome to peruse these documents, even carbon-date them if they want, but I'm damned if I'm going to go to the expense of paying for carbon-dating myself because of this scoundrelly crew.  

Transcript of correspondence with Blume in which I mention Neurodiversity
 prior to his being "the first to publish   

. 

Note: I used the term Neurodiversity freely witih Harvey because I had already talked to him about it on the phone.

Where I said ''that I'm sure I coined Neurodiversity'' I also implied that the concept but not the coinage was probably ''in the air'' aka "the zeitgeist". I said the same thing in my thesis. 

The article with the "Tentative Title" was eventually published as a book chapter by the then Open University Press, now owned by McGraw Hill. Available at https://search.worldcat.org/title/disability-discourse/oclc/39182312

In case it has escaped my learned rivals, ALL paradigm shifting ideas arise from the zeitgeist (Eng: the spirit of the time/era), ie the human discourse of the given time)  but it takes a theorist to name, explicate and analyse them first. They don't come down in a bolt of lightening from the blue. 

Next, may we expect Nick Walker to abandon his claim to the phrase "Neurodiversity Paradigm"? Because not only was it "in the air", but it was based on my coinage. They even drag Kassiane Asasumasu into it, despite the fact that she derived her idea from my coinage as well. Does anyone know if Asasumasu even cited me?  

It seems to surprise my career academic rivals that I did not make a song and dance about my neologism: Absurdly, Chapman seizes on, as evidence that I "did not coin neurodiversity", because I failed to proclaim it it with blazing trumpets.

"Singer did not claim to have coined the term of neurodiversity herself"

  Chapman et al, Sage Journals: Autism,  March 12, 2023       

Unlike my career academic competitors,  I was not all agog for academic glory and fame.  I was simply writing from my heart about my "lived experience". This absurdity says more Chapman's ambitious ego than mine

You may ask: then why did I go back to university at all? 

Because I was a sole parent of a toddler who needed a lot more care than most. Who knew we autism in the family way back then? No-one, not even the pscho-medical professions knew the extent of the autistic spectrum. Thus I was not able to work regular hours, not least because most of the money I earned would have been seized by Australia's punitive welfare system anyway. I was just one of many, mostly females of course, caught in a (well-documented here) poverty trap by government fiat.  Thanks to the pandering idiots of our major parties, the effect was to create a HUGE disincentive to work and employment. 

But enrolling at university meant that I got an extra $AUD 30 a fortnight supplement to the carers pension.  Believe me, it mattered! And it was something meaningful to do. 

My Academic Majors

When people asked me what I "majored" in, I joked - though it was no joke - that I majored in anything scheduled on Wednesdays, because that was the only day my father had free to babysit my child. I could not afford childcare on top of rent. 

The Jane Meyerding accusation

I hope the 6 Sages will not continue to seize on a conversation I had with Jane Meyerding when I asked her if she had ever heard the term "Neurodiversity". It is important to note that Jane is in no way to blame for our conversation being wilfully misinterpreted by these dirt-digging desperados. I consulted her because she had been in the USA mainstream of the Autistic Self-Advocacy Movement long before me.  And because I had no intention of using the coinage until I was absolutely sure that the word did not exist. By then,  I had already exhausted all the resources of university libraries, the internet and never found a single mention. As a further note, my supervisors would have demanded a citation of the word, if they had any doubt that it was not my original coinage. 

Jane confirmed she had never come across it either, which left me free to use and interpret it in my thesis.

Notice that my defamers interpreted my correspondence with Jane in a twisted and mean-spirited way. Perhaps it is because they imagine I think the same way as they do?  Can we deduce that they do not feel the need to check in with others before they make their self-promoting claims?. 

Blume

It is frankly galling to find Harvey Blume getting equal billing with me in the history of the movement, when he was simply a freelance journalist specialising in interviewing literary figures.  

Blume mentioned "neurodiversity" once, having picked my brain about disability politics, and then moved on to chase other rabbits.  Meanwhile, the development of this concept was my life's work, born out of great family hardship and struggle and my fortuitous discovery of Disability Studies. And it was NOT written just for the sake of personal catharsis, but also because I didn't want other families affected by Autism to have to endure the same. By that time, I had already founded the first of about 8 local and international autism support groups

Nor do journalistic ethics or the laws of defamation appear to daunt the Wikipedia crew,  whose hogwash has been lapped up by my academic rivals. Hardly surprising, since they well know that defamation cases can only be afforded by corporations or billionaires. Which brings me to...

Any billionaires interested in funding my defamation case? 
Don't let me dissuade you. Remember I have original papers. How could we possibly lose?

The Final Absurdity in the Neurodiversity Saga

How could this example of Botha, Chapman, Walker et al's blundering "logic" possibly have got past the learned editors of Sage Publications? 

Having made up their minds, for reasons we can only guess at, that the term Neurodiversity could only be attributed to anyone else but me, the 6 academicians put their heads together to gather the killer evidence. 

Yet despite their advanced research skills, however desperately hard they tried, they simply could not find a shred of evidence anywhere of prior usage.Just as I couldn't when I exhaustively researched my thesis in 1998 (as accredited by the Sydney University of Technology's Ethics Committee).  And BTW, by defaming me, they Sage 6 are actually defaming my University.  About which more later. 

So they came up with this absurdity :

"Unless further archival evidence comes to light, it is possible we will never     know who coined the term neurodiversity"  

(Botha, Chapman, Walker et al)    

 

All I can say in reply to this absurdity is that if it wasn't me,

then it could only have been coined by  

    'Turtles all the Way Down'

 

   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

But now, I leave you with a time-honoured lesson
from our Ancient Sages

     Albeit note the time-dishonoured sexism I have been forced to correct. 

_______________________________________________________

Dramatis Personae

Do any psychologists out there have any ideas about what this reveals?

_______________________________________________________

Bibliography

The Provenance of the Neurodiversity Concept

Judy Singer

*Thesis

Singer, J. (1998).  Odd People In: The Birth of Community Amongst People on the “Autistic Spectrum”: a personal exploration of a New Social Movement based on Neurological Diversity. A thesis presented to the faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts Social Science (Honours), Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, University of Technology, Sydney, 1998. Submitted September 1998.

Book

Singer, J. (2016) NeuroDiversity: The birth of an idea. Kindle https://www.amazon.com/NeuroDiversity-Birth-Idea-Judy-Singer-ebook/dp/B01HY0QTEE/

Book Chapters

Singer, J. (1999). Why can't you be normal for once in your life?: From a 'Problem with No Name' to a new category of disability. In Corker, M. and French, S. (Eds.). Disability Discourse Open University Press UK https://www.worldcat.org/title/disability-discourse/oclc/39182312

Singer, J. (2002). When Cassandra was very very young. In Rodman, K. (Ed.) (2002) Is anybody listening? Jessica Kingsley Publishers, UK

Singer, J. (2003). Preface: Travels in Parallel Space: An Invitation. In Miller, J. K. (ed). Women from Another Planet? Our Lives in the Universe of Autism 1stBooks Library, New York

Singer, J. (2019) Reflections on the Neurodiversity Movement 20 years on. In Neurodiversity: 20th anniversary of the birth of the concept: Advocacy for positive recognition of human diversity and its future available https://www.etsy.com/ca-fr/listing/701221413/neurodiversity-20th-anniversary-of-the?

Translation available at La Neurodiversité - 20e anniversaire de la naissance d'un concept: Plaidoyer pour la reconnaissance positive de la diversité humaine et pour son avenir https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/688599087/neurodiversity-20th-anniversary-of-the?

Government Publication

Singer, J. (2000).  Disability Employment Services Information Kit.  Department of Family and Community Services, Australian Government publication (Comprises 8 illustrated booklets, half in Easy English and half in Pictorial English, fact sheets and posters. 50,000 copies in print, distributed to every Disability Employment Service office in Australia)

Academic papers

Singer, J. (1999). No Longer Fair Game: Human Rights for Nerds, Weirdoes and Oddballs: The current situation of people with Autistic Spectrum Disorders in the NSW education system. A paper given at the 1999 Conference on Human Rights, Disability, and Education at the University of NSW.

Singer, J. (1999). Uncovering the Neurological Procrustean Bed. A paper given to the "Sydney Disability Research Network". University of Technology, Sydney

Singer, J. (1999). Voice and “Neurological Difference”.   A seminar paper given to the "Sydney Disability Research Network"  UTS

Satirical Pieces

Singer, J. (1998) NT Social Skills Deficiencies: A case study available archived online by Eric Engdahl at The Institute for the Study of the Neurologically Typical  https://erikengdahl.se/autism/isnt/

Singer, J. (1998) What to do if you suspect your child has NT available archived online by Eric Engdahl at The Institute for the Study of the Neurologically Typical  https://erikengdahl.se/autism/isnt/ 

Debut Appearance of the Word “Neurodiversity”

Singer, J  (1997)  Mentioned by Judy Singer in private email to Harvey Blume. Correspondence archived, pictured above. 

Blume, H (1998)  On the Neurological Underpinnings of Geekdom The Atlantic Monthly: September 1998

Blog

Reflections on Neurodiversity:  Afterthoughts, Ideas, Polemics. Not always serious

What is Neurodiversity? Definitions and discussion.