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“The essence of autism: fact or artefact?”

Molecular Psychiatry volume 26, pages 1440–1441 (2021)Cite this article

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A Correction to this article was published on 26 October 2021

This article has been updated

To the Editor:

In their recent article, Mottron and Bzdok [1] are concerned with whether autism’s heterogeneity is a fact or artefact. On their view, this will come down to whether it is a natural or nominal kind. They associate the former with having a natural “essence” that not only unifies but also distinguishes the condition from other psychological disabilities. Autism as a nominal kind, on the other hand, is conceived as a vague and overly inclusive construct that allows for an undue range of diversity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

    Robert Chapman

  2. Department of Philosophy, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Walter Veit

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  1. Robert Chapman
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Correspondence to Robert Chapman.

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Chapman, R., Veit, W. “The essence of autism: fact or artefact?”. Mol Psychiatry 26, 1440–1441 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-020-00959-1

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