Reply to Neurotribes--the history and myths of autism

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[quote=Anonymous]I just finished the book, and recommend it.  It's basically a history of how society and medicine have thought about autism for the past 200 years or so.  The later chapters were familiar ground for me (the vaccine wars, the Autism Speaks wars, etc.) but I learned a lot in the first half that I haven't seen anywhere else.  The best investigative journalism in there is Silberman's discovery that Leo Kanner almost certainly did not independently "discover" and name autism simultaneously with Hans Asperger.  It turns out that Asperger's chief diagnostician and head nurse fled the Nazis, got married, and ended up working ... you guessed it, in Kanner's clinic in Baltimore.  Kanner does not come out looking good.  Asperger is kind of the hero of the book.  The account of Henry Cavendish's life is very compelling too.  Maybe it can bring an end to the debates about whether folks like Einstein or Jefferson were on the spectrum.  It seems pretty hard to argue about Cavendish!  And there are a lot of good stories in there about autistic kids, even so-called "low functioning" ones, growing up to lead happy and meaningful lives--at least if they could avoid being institutionalized, which was clearly a great tragedy for many.

And yes, Silberman has a very humane view of the spectrum and clearly thinks we should spend more time and money helping autistic people thrive, and less time hunting around for more and more genetic markers. Of course science should march on doing what it does, but it seems very unlikely at this point that the search for the causes of autism will produce any answers that will be much help to actual autistic people.  At least not any time soon.  And a genetic test that would ensure that they are never born (as is happening with Down's) could be a real tragedy.  On the other hand, investments in better educational and work environments, communication devices, and family support could do a world of good.  So we just need a shift in priorities.[/quote]

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