A Humanistic Psychological Approach To Autism

June 27, 2017 by Paul Isaacs 3 Comments

Humanistic, humanism and humanist are terms in psychology relating to an approach which studies the whole person, and the uniqueness of each individual. Essentially, these terms refer the same approach in psychology.

Humanism is a psychological perspective that emphasizes the study of the whole person. Humanistic psychologists look at human behavior not only through the eyes of the observer, but through the eyes of the person doing the behaving.

McLeod, S. A. (2015). Humanism. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/humanistic.html

Looking at the whole person means you look at every aspect of the person and how what is going on lets look at this in the context of autism

• The Environment (social connections, relationships, friendships)
• Personality (development of personality, traits, types and “disordered extremes” which also connects with communication styles, wants, needs, desires, aspirations etc)
• Education (types of learning, style of learning, solitary, social, mixed)
• Information processing (delayed, mixed, information overload)
• Language processing (literal, aphasia, semantic pragmatic disorder)
• Sensory integration (over or under processing/integration of sensory input)
• Sensory perceptional (face-blindness, meaning blindness, object blind and other associated perceptual disorders)
• Emotional regulation and perception
• Mental Health (mood disorders, attachment disorders, dissociative disorders, impulse control disorders, psychosis)
• Identity (male, female, non-binary, hertrosexual, homosexual, bisexual, asexual etc)
• Co-dependency (dependant personality, passive-aggressive personality and attachment)
• Dietary Disabilities (food intolerances, food allergies, chemical imbalances)
• Metabolic disorders
• Auto-immune disorders
• Seizure Disorders

Holistic Psychology

Holism refers to any approach that emphasizes the whole rather than their constituent parts. In other words ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’. Qualitative methods of the humanistic approach reflect a holistic position. Social psychology also takes a holistic view.

A holistic approach therefore suggests that there are different levels of explanation and that at each level there are “emergent properties” that cannot be reduced to the one below.

Reductionist explanations, which might work in some circumstances, are considered inappropriate to the study of human subjectivity because here the emergent property that we have to take account of is that of the “whole person”. Otherwise it makes no sense to try to understand the meaning of anything that anybody might do.

McLeod, S. A. (2008). Reductionism and Holism. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/reductionism-holism.html

I would say with working in the autism field for over seven years you must look at all the factors and how they interact with EACH OTHER such as personality development for example will dictate how people react and however the underpinnings are to do with biological, psychological and environmental factors.
All Voices are Equal

All voices and perceptions are equal and that means that differing realities, perceptions and knowledge has to be taken into account so that can be. There should be no “them vs us” or segregation burns far too many bridges. This can be from differing realities such as neurobiology, auto-immunity and metabolic disorders, dietary needs and many more.

• Neurobiologists
• Auto-immunology
• Speech and Language Therapists
• Developmental Psychology and Psychiatry
• Mental Health Psychology and Psychiatry
• Music Therapists
• Diet Specialists
• Parents, Guardians and Family Members
• Friends
• People on the Autism Spectrum

Listening, Empathy and Autonomy

Self-worth, self-esteem, self-perception are to do with how we feel about ourselves in relation to others and how others feel in relation to you here are simple aspects of that.

• Trust (Building stable, balanced and honest friendships and/or relationships)
• Empathy (Showing genuine kindness, assertion and care which is balanced, contextual and meaningful)
• Listening (Acknowledging the person as a human being first through listening to their wants, needs, desires and aspirations)
• Being Non-authoritarian and egalitarian (Show through example, intention and meaning that being equal is the standard stetter nothing more or less)
• Allow for growth and developmental, psychological and environmental changes (Change is good it can be progressive, assertive, connective, inspiring and fun)
• Everybody is a person (Be non-judgmental, objective and constructive the key for allowing growth is to see the person first)

What makes each person with autism so different from each other? How do you learn to ‘speak autistic’? What are the low cost and no cost strategies to help people with autism manage their own particular collection of challenges?

Published in 2005, The Jumbled Jigsaw is an easy to read, ‘quick dip’ self help manual on the ‘Fruit Salad’ model of and approach to the navigation and management of autism. It exposes autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) not as single entities but as a combination of a whole range of often untreated, sometimes easily treatable, underlying conditions. Exploring everything from mood, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive and tic disorders to information processing and sensory perceptual difficulties, including dependency issues, identity problems and much more, it demonstrates how a number of such conditions can combine to form a ‘cluster condition’ and underpin the label ‘autism spectrum disorder. Most importantly it gives case study examples and clear strategies for management of each piece of autism spectrum ‘fruit salad’.

Donna Williams 2005

My Conclusion is that looking at the “bigger picture”, “the whole person” and the interacting components form an “inside-out” perspective means that you can potentially enrich and EMPOWER people live giving the them the building blocks to make choices, self-assertion, independence and self-worth.

Paul Isaacs 2017