ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I explain how an extended narrative theory of identity can encompass the experiences of subjects who regard their lives as fragmented either by intersecting sources of oppression or through sensory discontinuities and a sense of permeability with one's surroundings. This narrative theory of identity reflects the everyday ways in which people make sense of their experiences alongside others and through recourse to norms of personhood within a culture or one's subculture that bestow a sense of belonging. However, many of the prevailing clinical narratives surrounding autism mark autistic individuals as lacking not only the capacity to access certain social goods but also the self-awareness that would underpin the (hypothesized) universal capacity for developing autonomous goals and plans. Drawing on the work of Hilde Lindemann Nelson, I explore how counterstories about a subgroup identity can counter the assumption that members of a group are unworthy of moral respect (2001: 151). I argue that autistic-focused counter-narratives about Monotropism, sensory differences, and the reality of autistic collaboration enhance narrative agency, contribute to individual self-trust and confidence in developing projects and plans, and support ongoing social relatedness. In conclusion, and drawing on the work of AutCollab, I gesture toward the arguments in the second half of this book that question the assumption that linguistic narrative that embeds abstract symbolic roles is the only way of sharing information and feeling or being social.
