See If You Can Find The Science

Sometimes the simplest way to expose a fraud or pseudo-science is to simply put it out for everyone to see. 

  This is the current criteria for a diagnosis for autism from the DSM-IV. It's a simple read. Pay particular attention to the take-out menu set of instructions that kicks it all off.

 

Autistic Disorder

A. A total of six (or more) items from (1), (2), and (3), with at least two from (1), and one each from (2) and (3):

(1)  qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following:

(a)  marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body postures, and gestures to regulate social interaction

(b)  failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level

(c)  a lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people (e.g., by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest)

(d) lack of social or emotional reciprocity

(2)  qualitative impairments in communication as manifested by at least one of the following:

(a)  delay in, or total lack of, the development of spoken language (not accompanied by an attempt to compensate through alternative modes of communication such as gesture or mime)

(b)  in individuals with adequate speech, marked impairment in the ability to initiate or sustain a conversation with others

(c)  stereotyped and repetitive use of language or idiosyncratic language

(d) lack of varied, spontaneous make-believe play or social imitative play appropriate to developmental level

(3)  restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities, as manifested by at least one of the following:

(a)  encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus

(b)  apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals

(c)  stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g., hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole body movements)

(d) persistent preoccupation with parts of objects

B. Delays or abnormal functioning in at least one of the following areas, with onset prior to age 3 years: (1) social interaction, (2) language as used in social communication, or (3) symbolic or imaginative play.

C. The disturbance is not better accounted for by Rett’s Disorder or Childhood Disintegrative Disorder.

Now, keep in mind that this is, for all practical purposes, the official definition of autism. At least six items from three lists with at least one from two of them and two from the remainder. Oh, and also one of these other three things. And also if it's not this thing over here.

  Now, try and imagine what empirical methodology could have possibly been used to  establish such an arbitrarily precise definition of who is and is not autistic. But before you do, let me help you a bit more.

  Psychologists and behaviorists have no agreed upon theory as to what the underlying cause of this is so there's no working backwards to reverse engineer the answer. Autism is defined  as a syndrome, a collection of symptoms. But, because a central theory is lacking as to what autism is, how can the individual  symptoms eminating from that cause be determined in advance? If you don't know what, ultimately, the set is, how do you, empirically, arrive at any sort of reliable method  of determining what the members of the set are?

  What empirical method was used to establish the DSM-IV's diagnostic test for autism?

  The answer's pretty clear, isn't it?