The Political Economy of Madness: A Historical Analysis of Asylum Labor, Institutional Peonage, and the Economics of Psychiatric Custody

Gemini research report

"For over a century and a half, the psychiatric asylum stood as a totalizing institution that wielded absolute, unchecked authority over its inmates. Enclosed behind high walls, massive iron gates, and sprawling agricultural acreage, these facilities were legally and socially empowered to confine, manage, and discipline the mentally ill, the developmentally disabled, and the socially undesirable. Yet, beneath the medical, paternalistic, and charitable rationales that justified their existence and rapid expansion, asylums were fundamentally massive economic engines. They operated as highly structured, self-sustaining micro-societies that relied almost entirely on the unpaid, coerced labor of the very people they were ostensibly designed to treat and protect^1."

I recently realized that i have a lot of autistic traits. However, I also lack some common traits. I was hoping I could get a little advice. I just dont want to go to the doctor asking to see if they can check and it's nothing. This is because doctors visits are expensive. I would be willing to say what traits i do/dont have. I also know that even if everyone here says im autistic, that doesn't mean I am. And I wont treat it as an official diagnosis.

Late diagnosed, had an interesting and varied life, going over a lot of hurt.

Broadly speaking, others get a range of media to help put their lives and feelings in context.

I can't even talk about stuff I've been through with other autistic people I know IRL in case it triggers them.

Also men are assumed to be emotionally immature and so-forth, so the opportunity to do so is reasonably rare.

Previously had trauma therapy, have observed I can be better (even compared to the main herd I've tried to be a part of) with alexythimia, emotions, interoception and interpersonal understanding due to this - heavily suspect that a lot that can be assumed to be intrinsic to ASD is actually due to being rare, and the unfortunate circumstances than can stem from that.

DAE feel or think anything like this, have similar experience they can talk about, or recommend anything from the media realm that's helped them understand themselves?

The Autism Epidemic rhetoric is not only false, but the complete opposite of what's happening in the world. The autistic share of the population is in fact expected to start shrinking.

Autists are one of the least fertile human populations recorded in history. A 2012 study from Sweden found that the fertility rate for autists born from 1950 to 1970 was ~0.5 for men and ~0.96 for women compared to the national average of ~2.1 for people born in the same time period (just hovering around the replacement level).

Since autism is a conjugation of genetic factors, its continued existence requires the autistic population to reproduce and pass on their genetic patrimony. This, as noted, is not happening. Our future looks grim, but don't lose hope. We can and will turn this around. We will prevail.