Healthism, Neurodiversity, and Respectability Politics, with Quill R. Kukla

“Healthism” is the pervasive ideology according to which each of us is responsible for valuing and protecting our own health and prioritizing health over other values, while society has the right to enforce, surveil, and reward healthy living. Neurodiversity and other forms of cognitive difference are generally understood through the lens of health: they are taken as diagnosable pathological conditions that should be treated or mitigated via medical interventions. Putting these two ideas together, neurodivergent people are supposed to try to be “healthy,” through pharmaceuticals, behavioral therapy, and the like, and society has an investment in making them be “healthy.” But neurodivergence is not a morbidity in a typical sense, so it is unclear what “health” means in this context. In practice, our societal standards for health for neurodivergent people are defined in terms of what avoids disrupting neurotypical expectations and systems or making neurotypical people uncomfortable. “Health,” for neurodivergent people, is in effect respectability—it is not defined in terms of their own needs or flourishing but in relation to the norms and needs of others. This can be seen from a close reading of diagnostic definitions and official medical “treatment” methods and goals. Trying to “treat” neurodivergent people by making them respectable citizens who are palatable within neurotypical productivity culture is usually likely to backfire; typically bad for their own well-being, and a social loss.Research seminar with Quill R. Kukla, Professor of Philosophy and Disability Studies at Georgetown University and fellow at the SOCRATES Institute at Leibniz Universität Hannover. Their work revolves around ethics (including bioethics, sexual ethics, health communication ethics, and science ethics), feminist and anti-oppression philosophy, philosophy of science (especially medicine and geography), philosophy of language, social epistemology, philosophy of place and urban theory, and aesthetics.This recording is from a research seminar held at the Institute for Futures Studies, Stockholm, June 2025.Moderator: Joe Roussos, philosopher.Research seminars are held at the institute most Wednesdays and are open to the public. Online participation possible. Sign up ⁠here to get invitations⁠. https://www.iffs.se/en/about-us/newsletter/#neurodiversity