Throw Away The Master's Tools Analysis

In the article, Throw Away the Master's Tools: Liberating Ourselves from the Pathology Paradigm Nick Walker uses ideas found in Andre Lorde’s article; A Master’s Tools will never Dismantle a Master’s House’. By using this same concept of, “reconstruction” Walker uses complex vocabulary and real life connections to demonstrate the negative connotation that society seems to place upon people who are Autistic. The article itself is mostly directed toward people who are Autistic, however, anyone who reads this piece of work will have something to take away from it as well. Although this paper is specifically targeted at adults who will be able to understand the complex article and its language. Walker wrote this article in the hopes of others reading …show more content…
It was important for him to include this shift because it gives readers something they can connect his ideas to. Walker goes on to state that, “ the most simple and well-known example of a paradigm shift comes from the history of astronomy: the shift from the geocentric paradigm to the heliocentric paradigm.” (Walker, 2) What this basically says is that particular views on a subject move from assumption and into a redefining truth. You can apply this example to Walker’s ideal idea of a shift. A pathology paradigm is something that is assumed to be there. People once thought the geocentric sun and planets all revolved around the Earth. This was an assumption, and everyone assumed that it was the only possibility, more so, the right one. If you did not agree with this theory then you were considered to be uneducated. However, the neurodiversity paradigm represents the current truth on heliocentric earth and how the planets actually revolve around the sun. It represents the new ideas and shows that just because something is said does not mean that it is correct. It is important that he used this connection because it can give the readers something easy to compare what he is saying to. I know for me after reading the geographical example it was easier for me to apply the same terms to the shift Walker uses when he talks …show more content…
He explains how normal isn’t really a word, and that we as a society have created it in order to describe what we see to be how a person should be or act. It is important to understand his idea of society creating normal, in hopes of fitting the social standards of right and wrong. This knowledge adds to Walker’s purpose by demonstrating the great lengths we as people will go to in order to appear as similar as possible. Being similar automatically means that we aren’t different, and we have seen time and time again that being different is usually associated with some negative connotation. Walker states, “The dubious assumption that there's such a thing as a "normal person" lies at the core of the pathology paradigm.” (Walker, 7) The term normal is used only one when is thinking in the ways of the pathological paradigm. We know this to be true because in the neurodiversity paradigm, normal does not exist. When I read over this I was very intrigued. I never consciously looked at the word “normal” in the way that Walker defines it to be. Once I realized that we all assume there to be only one right and wrong in the world it was easier to understand more of why Walker was using this tactic to get his purpose across. After thinking about all the assumptions and opinions we place on people so quickly it truly made me question everything I have known to be for the majority of my life. These assumptions are things