The DSM Definition of Autism

Whenever you hear someone discuss the official definition of autism, what they're actually referring to the DSM definition. DSM stands for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which is essentially the bible of the psychology community. It's a very important book, one which can and does literally create and destroy labels for mental disorders, the latter of which recently happened to autism. This is made all the more important considering our label-centric world in which all too often if you don't have a label for something, it doesn't exist, at least in the eyes of insurance companies, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and schools, if not society at large.