Characterizing AUTISM: conceptual metaphors developed by autistic people in YouTube videos

Despite the advances of autistic social movements in defense of human diversity and their human rights, we still observe the existence of categorizations based on beliefs, values and attitudes that impose an excluding standard of "normality" for their different way of being. This study aims to describe the categorization of AUTISM , through the conceptual metaphors developed by autistic people on their YouTube channels. Categorization is a way of organizing and structuring the meanings elaborated throughout life about oneself and the external world (Pelosi, 2022), gradually formed by experiences (Lakoff; Johnson, 1980). Conceptual metaphors allow the formation of complex concepts and general categories, based on embodiment and sensorial -motor experiences (Lakoff, 1987). Autistics are characterized, according to the DSM 5 medical manual (APA, 2014), by relative deficits in social communication and restrictive -repetitive behaviors/interests. The study uses the narratives of autistic people in two public domain videos, on two YouTube channels, using the AntConc 3.5.9 software as a data collection and case study procedure. As a result, we identified the conceptual metaphor AUTISM IS A LIVING ORGANISM , which discusses the condition of neurodevelopment and the importance of valuing the living aspect of autistic people, who have their own needs and autonomy in their actions. In addition, it highlights the possibility of death as a form of concealment, shame, anger, fear, evolution and the end of life (K & Ouml;VECSES, 1992), due to the violence suffered with social exclusion.