Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism by Roy Richard Grinker
Epidemic. Cure.
Them’s fighting words in autism circles, in the autism blogosphere, among autiebloggers, in Autismland. Is there really an increase in autism or is it that we have expanded and changed our definition of what autism is? Is autism some devastating disorder, some life-ruining tragedy, that we need to eradicate and chelate away and cure, or is autism to be seen as reflecting human difference and diversity? These are familiar, and much and passionately debated, questions in autism circles.
And a soon-to-be-published book provides some real insight into these questions.
That is, what if we were to say that rising numbers of autism diagnoses is not necessarily a bad thing, in the sense that it shows that our culture is able to understand and appreciate such difference, and to find ways to record this? That we recognize neurological difference as more ways of being human, rather than simply stigmatizing a child who “acts weird,” or odd?
A forthcoming book—Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism by Roy Richard Grinker—argues that
…the newer, higher, more accurate statistics on autism are a sign that we are finally seeing and appreciating a kind of human difference that we once turned away from and that many other cultures still hide away in homes or institutions or denigrate as bizarre. (p. 5)
Grinker is an anthropologist who teaches at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and he is the father of Isabel, who has autism. His experience raising his daughter is gracefully wound into Unstrange Minds, which is specifically “about how culture affects the way we view autism” (p. 11). How did autism become a “widely diagnosed disorder” in the United States? How is autism diagnosed—or not—or understood—or not—in different countries? Grinker addresses this first question on the “‘discovery’” of autism and analyzes the rising prevalence rates of autism in Part One of Unstrange Minds, then takes the reader to many different countries—South Africa, India, and Korea, and others—in Part Two, to see if autism is as “visible” in other countries as it is in the United States and to study autism across cultures.
Most compelling to me as the mother of an autistic son, Grinker shares the story of Isabel’s life, from her babyhood to her diagnosis to her entrance into public school at the age of six, to her as the animal-loving, cello-playing, young woman she is today.
Isabel has taught me that the unexpected, even the beautiful, can emerge even from the undesirable, like a lotus growing out of the mud, its beauty and purity unsullied by its origin. That beauty can be found in a single person, inside of whom there is something—no, not something “normal,” but a brilliant light or an inner truth struggling to blossom. (p. 35)
Unstrange Minds will be published by Basic Books on January 22, 2007. I will be writing more about this important and finely written book in future posts here on AutismVox as I think Prof. Grinker, and Isabel, have much to tell us and to teach us about autism, about fathers and daughters and families, about unstrange, and beautiful, minds.
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POSTED IN: Autism Lit, Books, Diagnosis, Health, History, Science, Stereotypes
8 opinions for Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism by Roy Richard Grinker
Autism Vox » Drinking Coffee Will Not Make Your Child Autistic
Oct 2, 2006 at 8:30 am
[…] You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Related Posts: Why I’m An Autism Blogger…In Memory of JosephBeaudoin, killed on February 21st at the (still operating) Fairfield Center…How do you make a dream come true?…Would you ever give up your autistic child?…All schools should be “autism-friendly”…Andy the Irish Play Therapist: Talking about Autism in Daniel Isn’t Talking (3)…Kids (and Adults) With Neurological Impairments Recommended For Flu Shot… […]
Brett
Oct 3, 2006 at 11:21 am
Wish I didn’t have to wait until January to read this. Any ideas on how I can get my own early copy? ;-)
Kristina Chew, PhD
Oct 3, 2006 at 7:52 pm
Brett, I know it will be worth the wait—-I will be posting more on the book—
Autism Vox
Oct 4, 2006 at 12:18 am
[…] Life with an autistic child like my son Charlie is very good. Life with autism can be simply beautiful, as more and more parents are writing today. ASD, Aspergers Syndrome, autism, autism spectrum disorder, baby, children, coffee, family, infant, mothering, parenting, PDD NOS, psychology, saloneAdd to: October 2nd, 2006 | Permalink | No Comments » […]
Autism Vox » Strange and Unstrange
Dec 28, 2006 at 9:43 pm
[…] A new book about autism and a mother from India: You think, “I’ve already read about that here—-Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism by Roy Richard Grinker, an anthropologist at George Washington University and father of Isabel, who has autism? But it is a different new autism book I am referring to, one that is (as the subtitle reads) about “two mothers, two sons, and the quest to unlock the hidden world of autism.” Strange Son is by Portia Iversen, who founded Cure Autism Now (CAN) with her husband, Hollywood producer John Shestack. Her son, Dov, is now 14 years old and (in the words of Shestack in his 2006 annual letter for Cure Autism Now) “almost totally non-verbal, slim and sweet” and “so very autistic.” The other mother in Iversen’s just-published memoir is Soma Mukhopadhyay, who is from India and who taught her son Tito Rajarshi Mukhopadhay to point to the alphabet letters on a piece of cardboard and so to communicate. Tito, who is non-verbal and is “severely autistic” (in Iversen’s book, he is constantly described as “stimming”), is a poet and the author of The Mind Tree: A Miraculous Child Breaks the Silence of Autism and The Gold of the Sunbeams and other stories. […]
Brad
May 22, 2007 at 10:45 pm
There is also a helpful guide for parents who have an asperger child.
This book gives practical step by step techniques in how to copy and understand your asperger child better.
Brad
http://www.aspergersyndromehelp.com/
Elissa A. Parkerson
Jun 14, 2007 at 9:27 am
This is a great book, I read most of it while I was on an expedition. Grinker brings us a perspective into the world of autism like no other.
I am investigating options for opening up an art studio/workshop for autistic children, and I also work with autistic children, this book is a great inspiration.
The Claim of the Autism Epidemic
Apr 15, 2008 at 4:23 am
[…] easy questions to respond to as, in order to accurately answer them, one has to consider the changing definitions and cultural understandings of words like “epidemic” and “normal” and “mental retardation.” […]
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