This expanded second edition of Mitzi Waltz’s Autism: A Social and Medical History offers an in-depth examination of how the condition was perceived before it became a separate area of investigation, and how autism has been conceptualised and treated since. As well as strengthening the existing text, Waltz has added material on a number of topics that have received increased attention since the first edition, including the rise of the anti-vaccination movement, the shift towards genetic and genomic research, and the progress of the autism self-advocacy movement.
The author examines these issues through the perspective of what they mean for autistic people, clinicians and society, and looks at the challenges still faced by autistic people. Waltz also looks at the increased autism diagnosis among girls and women, and how autism has been represented in traditional media and social media. The book includes information from interviews with key researchers, parents of autistic children and people with autism.
Author(s): Mitzi Waltz
Edition: 2
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 289
City: London
Preface: Autism, and How We Got Here
Acknowledgements
A Word About Language
Contents
Chapter 1: A Nameless Difference
References
Chapter 2: Autism Before and After the Enlightenment
References
Chapter 3: Workhouses, Asylums and the Rise of the Behavioural Sciences
References
Chapter 4: The Social Construction of Autism
Naming Autism
Leo Kanner’s Case Studies
Melanie Klein and ‘Richard’
The Power of Narrative
Autism Meets Behaviourism
Medical Research Passes Autism By
The Impact of the Social Construction of Autism
References
Chapter 5: From ‘Pathological Motherhood’ to ‘Refrigerator Mothers’
Child Guidance and Mother Guidance
Theorising the Boundaries of Deviance
Bringing It All Back Home
References
Chapter 6: Bedlam, Behaviourism and Beyond
Behaviourist Methods
Teaching the TEACCH Way
Medical and Therapeutic Dead Ends
References
Chapter 7: Parent-Blaming, Parent Power and Research
Parent Narratives of Autism
From Parent Activism to Parent-Driven Research
Research Progress: Diagnosis and Interventions
The Importance of Diagnosis
Creating a Behavioural and Cognitive Profile
References
Chapter 8: Parents Behind the Wheel: Danger Ahead?
Living Through the ‘Autism Wars’
Autism in the Media
References
Chapter 9: Autism Self-Advocacy: Achievements and Challenges
From Contact to Communication
From Communication to Activism
From Activism to Policymaking
References
Chapter 10: Genetics, Genomics and the Medical Model of Autism
From ‘Epidemic’ Rhetoric to a Renewed Medical Model of Autism
Medical Ethics: A Moving Target
Genetic/Genomic Autism Research After Folstein and Rutter
Conclusions
References
Afterword: A New Politics of Autism?
References
Index
