It’s kinda interesting to think that whilst neurodivergence has always been around, “autism” as a named condition is a relatively modern thing, as in the first guy to be diagnosed with it died earlier last year.

He was a strange child, and was institutionalised, which his parents regretted and then took him to a child psychologist, who included Trippet as case 1 in the paper that first characterised autism.

Donald Trippet was his name. He lived a long and fulfilled life :) I feel like it’s important to know his name, because… idk, he was a person and his life and personality has inadvertently became very important, but also I think it’s important to remember the non-scientists, the volunteers and subjects, from whom so much scientific and medical knowledge is drawn. They’re generous with themselves – or I guess Trippet’s parents were – and it advances knowledge.

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to credit subjects in papers rather than anonymise them. Maybe anonymise them during data processing to remove a source of bias but like… thank you for allowing us to use your body-mind to learn things! I guess we do pay them…, idk, anonymous feels like extractive? Like they are just a source of data in the end product. A more inclusive science might have them as co-authors, study designers and so on… but collecting feedback is unhelpful when you can’t adjust the protocol halfway through the study… idk. things i think about.