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Developing an Understanding of Health Myths and How They Stick and Spread Through the Vaccines Cause Autism

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Developing an Understanding of Health Myths and How They Stick and Spread Through the Vaccines Cause Autism HEALTH MYTHOLOGIES: DEVELOPING AN UNDERSTANDING OF HEALTH MYTHS AND HOW THEY STICK AND SPREAD THROUGH THE VACCINES CAUSE AUTISM MYTH by RICHARD MOCARSKI JASON EDWARD BLACK, COMMITTEE CHAIR MEREDITH BAGLEY ANDREW C. BILLINGS DAVID BIRCH KIMBERLY BISSELL A DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Communication and Information Sciences in the Graduate School of The University of Alabama TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA 2014 Copyright Richard Anthony Mocarski 2014 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT Health myths are health belief systems which prescribe behaviors thought to be health positive by myth-subscribers which are, according to Western medicine, health negative or neutral. These myths become part of individual, family, and community ethnomedical constructions and can have lasting negative health impacts. This project aims to better understand how health myths become lasting and pervasive through a Foucauldian genealogy of the vaccine cause autism (VCA) myth. Using a variety of critical rhetorical lenses—including mythic analysis, the narrative paradigm, circulation theory, performativity, and collective memory—this project analyzes six cases across three realms. In the realm of popular culture Jenny McCarthy’s brand-system and the narratives of autism in TIME and Parenting Magazines are analyzed; in the realm of medicine the diagnostic history of autism in the DSM and foundational articles and the circulation of peer-reviewed scientific articles that arguably link autism to environmental triggers are analyzed; and in the institutional realm Congressional hearings on VCA and the collective memory of autism crafted by non-profits on both side of the VCA debate are analyzed. These analyses demonstrate the commonalities across cases and realms, as well as the points of contradiction, offering a better picture for the ways that macro- social hegemonic discourses coupled with pathos-steeped narratives bind together through sticky affect. This binding creates a bloc of discourses that circulate and re-circulate through popular culture, medicine, and institutions such as government creating many entry points for community construction around VCA. The implications of this project include new insights on affective ii stickiness, further development of the links between Foucault and critical rhetoric, and a better understanding of popular culture’s place in medical discourses. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS APA American Psychological Association AS Autism Speaks ASD Autism Spectrum Disorders CBPR Community Based Participatory Research CCR Cultural, Critical Rhetoric DSM Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health EEG Electroencephalography GR Generation Rescue HBM Health Belief Model HOV Human Papillomavirus MMR Measles, Mumps, and Rubella PTSD Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder SES Socioeconomic Status VCA Vaccines Cause Autism iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation and my graduate work as a whole would not have been possible if not for the support and guidance of many people. First I want to thank my wife, Jessica Hollander, and son Oliver for their enduring patience, love, and support. They provide the support I need at home to weather the many storms that an intensive undertaking like this brings. I also want to thank Jessica for always being there to intellectually engage and challenge me. Without our exciting back-and-forths many of my insights would have been less nuanced and shallower. I also want to thank my parents, Lynn and Harold Maurer, for being there for me during this process. Whether they are providing me an ear to bend, an oasis away from my work, or encouragement, they have always been there for me. And thank you to my in-laws, Tom and Cindy Hollander. They have been my allies through this process and have provided support for me and my family. And I want to thank them for the many times they have allowed me dedicated time to work on my scholarship by taking Oliver and Jessica on trips! Thank you to Beverly Thorn and the department of psychology for providing me with the financial support to make going back to school with a young family possible. The flexibility they allowed, as well as the resources and encouragement have been tremendous! My cohort in my program was and is instrumental to my development as a scholar. Both in the classroom and outside of the classroom Natalie Brown, Sim Butler, Anthony Cox, Betsy Emmons, Yeo-Jin Julie Kim, Murray Lee, Will Nevin, Qiong Joan Xu, and Rachael Smallwood made me a better listener and interpreter. I want to especially thank Sim, Betsy, and Rachael v with who I wrote many articles and who really pushed me along on this path. Furthermore, Sim’s willingness to be my sounding board and his ability to bring the best out of my writing has been both vital to my completion of this program and also in my life in general! I want to thank the members of my committee—team B: Jason Black, Meredith Bagley, Andrew Billings, David Birch, and Kimberly Bissell. Not only have these wonderful faculty members helped to steer this project, each one has been formative in my development as a scholar. I thank Meredith for her compassion and empathy for justice and people, which gives her enviable passion that I hope to emulate. I thank Andy for showing me his rational and logical worldview that helps to compartmentalize the craziness of the academy. I thank Dave for his excitement for students and for being challenged, which offered me a pathway into health communication. I thank Kim for her contagious ambition and her willingness to engage with me despite the differences in our worldview and methods. I thank all these members for pushing me in their classes, on this project, and on other projects. They helped me to be a better scholar and a better person. Finally, I want to thank Jason Black. Jason has been with me since I first found Communication Studies almost five years ago. He has guided me from a desire to do quantitative driven organization communication to the critical rhetoric of health communication I do today. At each step along the way he has been encouraging and patient, wise and generous. He has always been willing to help me balance the responsibilities of my life, while taking on extra responsibilities for my aid. Without Jason, I am not here. Without Jason, I am not the scholar I am today or the person. Without Jason this does not happen. vi Thank you to the countless others who I did not name. This dissertation is a culmination of years of work, and also of dozens of people who have supported me. vii CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................................ iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .............................................................................................................. v LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ xii LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1 Purpose ............................................................................................................................................ 2 Cultural and Communication Problem ........................................................................................... 3 Vaccines Cause Autism .................................................................................................................. 5 Choice of Texts and Rationale ........................................................................................................ 7 Brief Preview of Method/Critical Approach................................................................................... 9 Research Queries .......................................................................................................................... 10 Preview of Project ......................................................................................................................... 11 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................................................................... 13 Myth .............................................................................................................................................. 13 Context/Case ................................................................................................................................. 16 Health Beliefs ........................................................................................................................ 16 Current Autism Debate. ......................................................................................................... 31 viii Stickiness ...................................................................................................................................... 32 CHAPTER 3: METHOD AND LENSES ..................................................................................... 36 Method: Foucauldian Analysis ..................................................................................................... 36 Critical Rhetoric ...................................................................................................................
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