Autism and the Culture of Therapy : The Politics and Practice of Applied Behaviour Analysis

Applied behaviour therapies are highly proscriptive and controversial evidence-based autism interventions that have, in many settings, become the standard of care. Autism and the Culture of Therapy is the first empirical study of applied behaviour therapies. To understand such therapies, we need to assess them in everyday practice, through the multiple interpretations, ethical frameworks, and applications of practitioners.

Julia Gruson-Wood examines how applied behaviour checklists, forms, protocols, and plans shape professional consciousness, how managerial governance strategically appropriates clinical data, how the rise of para-practitioners democratizes science, and how gender, sexuality, and identity politics imbue clinical practice and social responses to autism.

Drawing on Ontario as a case study, Autism and the Culture of Therapy reveals the fascinating and complex workplace culture of therapy providers, telling the story of a clinical field that has risen along with rates of autism diagnosis, and redefined what autism means.