Today’s episode critiques the modern support industry for neurodivergent individuals, arguing that many services prioritise institutional conformity over genuine well-being. The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, suggests that programs labeled as therapy or education often function as tools for norm enforcement, masking their demand for compliance behind a veneer of care. By using gentle language like “skills” and “readiness,” these systems can obscure their true goal of making autistic people more tolerable to society rather than helping them flourish. Whilst acknowledging that some practitioners do authentic and humane work, Dr. Hoerricks warns that much of the available assistance is actually a mechanism of control. This perspective highlights the dangerous disconnect between superficial clinical goals and the actual needs of the person receiving help.
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