The Looping Effects of Human Kinds, by Ian Hacking

In his discussion of the “looping effects” of diagnostic labeling, Ian Hacking (1995, 2002) has distinguished labeling from above and from below. Originating as it does with the patients rather than the doctors, neurodiversity illustrates labeling from below, even if it necessarily feeds on information “from above.” For autistic self-advocates, neurologizing their condition helps redefine it in terms of an organically localized difference. There is, however, no consensus on the neurobiological etiology of autism.

Vidal, Fernando and Ortega, Francisco. Being Brains: Making the Cerebral Subject (Forms of Living)....

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Hacking, Ian. 1995. “The Looping Effects of Human Kinds.” In Causal Cognition: A Multidisciplinary A...

Hacking, Ian. 2002. “Making Up People.” In Historical Ontology, 99–114. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Un...