Neurodiversity and autism: between disability and difference, science and ideology ; Neurodiversité et autisme: entre handicap et différence, science et idéologie

International audience ; The concept of neurodiversity has been developing for more than twenty years from a socio-political angle. Since then, it has been strongly criticized for its lack of scientificity, its blurred boundaries, its emphasis a certain conception of autism, its problems associated with intellectual disability, its inability to support the theory of a non-disabling difference, and its excessive alignment with either the medical model of disability or the social model of disability. Furthermore, neurodiversity is considered from different angles, depending on disciplines, research and individuals: the medical model of disability, based on an individual problem; the social model of disability, based on a societal problem; the neurodiversity combining innate, acquired, neurodevelopment and psychology in opposition to a norm; and the cognitive diversity, highlighting the existence of different cognitions and neurophenotypes outside of psychopathology and the healthy-pathological opposition. This article thus proposes using the case of autism to explore these two challenges of neurodiversity: its terminology and its scientific foundations. The development of a neurobiological and genetic pan in neurodiversity, and a more thorough work on the definition and conception of autism could place neurodiversity in a scientific field free of political and partisan ideologies. ; Le concept de neurodiversité se développe depuis plus de vingt ans sous un angle sociopolitique. Or, il est depuis vivement critiqué pour son manque de scientificité, le flou de ses frontières, la mise en lumière d’une certaine conception de l’autisme, les problématiques liées à la déficience intellectuelle, l’incapacité à étayer la théorie d’une différence non handicapante ainsi que le trop grand alignement tantôt sur le modèle médical du handicap et tantôt sur le modèle social du handicap. Par ailleurs, la neurodiversité est considérée sous différents angles selon les disciplines, les chercheurs et le grand public : le modèle médical ...