Autistic Persistent Drive For Autonomy
Is the PDA Autism profile helpful, or does it further pathologize Autistics?
I mean, the word pathological is right in the name…
Pathological vs. Rational Demand Avoidance
PDA stands for Pathological Demand Avoidance, RDA stands for Rational Demand Avoidance, and an alternative for the PDA acronym is Pervasive Drive for Autonomy.
I’ll explain what each means and why some approaches may be more beneficial and accurate than the other.
Disclaimer
Before I proceed, I want to make something clear. I am not in any way intending to question how a person chooses to identify themselves. The critiques that follow are aimed at the deficits-focused approach inherent in the PDA profile.
The primary concern is when people are labelled avoidant, defiant, oppositional, and manipulative (manipulative being a word the person who coined the term PDA includes in their “diagnostic” criteria) without genuine and meaningful attempts to understand why they are resistant.
If we label someone as O.D.D. or PDA, for example, that may become an easy explanation for any time they are standing up for themselves — oh, they’re just being “avoidant”…
