An Epidemic of Discovery
But is there, in fact, an autism epidemic?
Asks Arthur Allen today in a review of Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism by Roy Richard Grinker in today’s Slate. Allen, author of Vaccine, continues:
Most of the scientists who study the disease—though not all—believe that any increase in recent decades in autism incidence, as opposed to diagnosis, has been modest. In his new book Unstrange Minds; Remapping the World of Autism, George Washington University anthropologist Roy Richard Grinker, who has an autistic 15-year-old daughter, makes the case that the rise in autism diagnosis is nothing more than an epidemic of discovery.
Go here to read Why there’s no autism epidemic, but rather an epistemological epidemic—one involving how we see and know the world, an “epidemic” of understanding—to phrase Allen’s “epidemic of discovery” another way.
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POSTED IN: Autism Lit, Books, Environment, India, Korea, Parenting, Science
5 opinions for An Epidemic of Discovery
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Jan 18, 2007 at 3:14 pm
[…] An Epidemic of Discovery […]
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Feb 8, 2007 at 5:06 pm
[…] Snow is falling all over Ireland; it is everywhere, it is pervasive, just as autism has become in our own society today (fueling calls of an “autism epidemic“). It is only at the very end of The Dead that the snow starts to fall so steadily, starting with “a few light taps upon the pane.” Within the arc of the story’s plot, the covering over of all of Ireland, of all of the world, with “flakes, silver and dark”–the snow contains elements of light and darkness both—makes sense because, just before this final paragraph, Gabriel, the story’s protagonist, has heard a more than surprising revelation from his wife, Gretta. The Dead is about a Christmas party at the house of Gabriel’s two aunts in Dublin a century ago. Guests are shown arriving, a Christmas repast laid out, there is music and dancing and snatches of conversation are overheard; Gabriel, who is a writer, delivers his speech. Afterwards, he sees Gretta listening to someone singing “The Lass of Aughrim”: “She was standing right under the dusty fanlight and the flame of the gas lit up the rich bronze of her hair, which he had seen her drying at the fire a few days before.” […]
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Mar 20, 2007 at 11:04 am
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Aug 5, 2007 at 5:20 am
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