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If we take the position that mental dis-orders and syndromes are primarily social constructs rather than any organic disease, as indeed so many dis-orders diagnosed today do not have any known biological markers (and even if they did, it would still be socially determined that they were negatives to be “cured”), then it follows that an increase in diagnoses reflects some change in society. Perhaps social conditions have led to an increase in “symptoms”, or perhaps changes have made the “symptoms” less acceptable, more dis-easeful. It can always be a combination of the two, but the latter is more likely when the increase in diagnoses corresponds to a loosening of diagnostic criteria.

This has been the case in recent years with the autistic spectrum of dis-orders. The numbers groups like Autism Speaks that thrive on the appearance of an epidemic use reflect this. I and a fair number of my gifted-program classmates would have been dragged off for diagnosis as aspies or “high-functioning” auties, but during my childhood they didn’t diagnosis such things without much more dramatic difference from constructed state of normalcy.

What has made the difference? Those of us on the spectrum are often referred to as being more or less in our own worlds. Our identities are seen to be based on unchecked personal interests and needs rather than on the shallow markers of difference brands have moved from representing to being. This is anathema to a consumer society.

A consumer society also depends on image rather than depth. Imagology, as Milan Kundera calls it, has not only superseded ideology in politics, but has made inroads in every field where meaning can be created. In person-to-person verbal communication, this manifests itself in the increased importance of smalltalk. Preferences in weather and sports teams are exchanged as so many brand-signals; people give each other images that reflect no deeper passions. (This is not intended to disparage the weather or sports: small talk has no room for an in-depth discussion of meteorological theory or the statistical arcs of a baseball season.)

One becomes more dis-ordered, and a dis-order becomes more diagnosed, as the realm of the socially desirable and acceptable moves further away from those differences stigmatized as symptoms.

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