Accommodation, resistance and transcendence: three narratives of autism

This paper presents a narrative analysis of autism. It follows much of the literature on illness and narrative by emphasising the moral quality of illness narratives and the role it plays in creating coherence out of the disordering effects of autism on family life. In particular, the significance of narratives as “moralizing antidotes” to the experience of marginality and their linkages to the cultural “master narratives” of science, politics and faith are stressed. The three narratives presented display both conformity and non-conformity with the official narrative of autism offered by the autistic treatment centre where the research was based. Accordingly, they are described as narratives of accommodation, resistance and transcendence.