[somenameforme]

Why do you think things like astrology persisted for so long? If not for the Church (which banned astrological prediction as blasphemous contradicting religious belief in self determination), it'd almost certainly still be with us. In fact when founding modern psychology Jung was heavily influenced by astrology. See - astrological psychology. [1] And his earliest work was with schizophrenia, from which the invention of autism would shortly emerge as a form of 'mild schizophrenia.'

It's always the same game with pseudo sciences. It appeals to our biases or desires, which results in enough people turning off their skepticism (because they like or agree with what they hear) to let it perpetuate itself. In astrology no issue or problem was of your own nature or doing, it was merely because the stars were not aligned. That has gradually transitioned to being replaced by because you have this psychological classification, or that.

You are still the exact same weird person you were before the diagnoses, and you always will be. And that's perfectly normal, so to speak. The declining trend of real, and deep relations, in the West seems to have left many people failing to understand something. Everybody is weird. If you think somebody is "normal", that simply means you don't know them well enough. And weak autism diagnoses and treatment in modern times seems increasingly geared towards pushing people towards arguably undesirable traits (such as excessive emotiveness) while doing away with many traits and characteristics (such as singular focus, minimal susceptibility to emotionality, or obsessive attention to detail) that are highly beneficial for leading a productive and successful life.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_astrology

[ModernMech]

Yes all people are weird, and autistic people are people, so it's no surprise they are weird. I don't think this is a failing of Western imagination, I'm not sure who gave you this impression.

Autism isn't about being weird or quirky though -- it's a developmental disorder and the behaviors associated with it are disabling in our society. This is characterize as having "significant impact" on ability to function.

[somenameforme]

Well, no. Many of the behaviors associated with it, even the literal diagnostic criteria, are extremely beneficial in our society. It's not just a weird coincidence that many of the most successful tech, engineering and even business figures could be (and in multiple cases have been) diagnosed with autism of varying degrees, notably post-facto.

If anything I think the rampant over-diagnoses of middling cases is itself extremely harmful. Because it's going to lead otherwise perfectly viable humans to think that things are just out of their control because they have whatever the trending diagnoses in psychology is, and a diagnoses of failure becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Suicide rates among those diagnosed with ASD, while having at least average intelligence, are ridiculously high. [2] Whatever is happening with these diagnoses is not this self affirmation bs people are spewing.

A bit more than a hundred years ago we'd have been having this topic, with the context of phrenology [1]. A nice little quote from that page: "Phrenology has been psychology's great faux pas. — J.C. Flugel (1933)." And so too will autism be. Until soon enough we might start to accept that psychology is not just a pseudo-science, but an exceptionally destructive one at that.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrenology

[2] - https://sparkforautism.org/discover_article/autism-suicide-r...