Use of the Machine Metaphor Within Autism Research

Traditionally, metaphor has been viewed a literary trope standing in opposition to literal forms of writing in the natural and social sciences. In recent decades, however, a multi-disciplinary field of cognitive linguistic research has developed. This research finds metaphor at the heart of both everyday and scientific thinking. Metaphor is understood to be vital to the development of useful theories within the sciences. In this paper, the authors analyze the use of the machine metaphor in recent autism research, allowing for an interrogation of that research in terms of generativity and utility.