Abstrakt
In this presentation, I'm going to analyse how autism started to be considered as an independent and widespread condition in the Czech Republic. Even though the phenomena which are described as autism and neurodiversity are global, the concepts themselves were firstly named and have been predominantly developed in Western countries, as have their most influential practical implementations.
This happened within the specific cultural-political settings of the region and within its systems of values and institutional networks. Autism in this sense can be considered as a Western social construct.
Autism wasn't recognised as an independent diagnostic category in Czechoslovakia during Communism. Significant changes began to gradually take place in the 1990s when the country was undergoing significant social-political transformations.
Nowadays, autism is becoming increasingly topical in the Czech Republic. Renowned experts estimate that there are more than 100,000 people on the autism spectrum in the country, and there is also a big demand for services, changes in legislation and wider public awareness of the condition.
This presentation is going to pursue the main features of this rapid development.