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Reviews
Worlds of Autism: Across the Spectrum of Neurological Difference by Joyce Davidson, Michael Orsini
dirtbooksun's review
informative
slow-paced
2.0
I expected so much more from this book. It started out interestingly but as it progresses I was shocked how uninformed the writers were and how othering they were of autistic people despite coming from disciplines like anthropology that quite frankly should know better at this point in time. How is it a book like this only seems to manage to fine 1 actually autistic author to include - stuck at the back of the book and who unlike the others writes in a much less academic tone (no fault to them I’m blaming the editors of the book here for only having that as the representation an autistic voice). The chapter on the representation of autism in literature somehow manages to only analyse stories written by parents looking for cures for their kids. How on earth did they miss the rather rich resource of memoirs written by autistic people themselves?! There is even statements to the effect to perpetuate the horrendous myth of theory of mind and nothing on things like the double empathy problem. Nothing on the whole concept of self identification either which is a huge part of autistic culture. One author seems to make a pathetic attempt explain why they only have formally diagnosed people as their ‘subjects’ as though they can’t find them. This is ridiculous . Get on the internet we are easy to find! Seriously there are plenty of autistic academics out there. I personally find it seriously offensive how little involvement autistic people played in this research.
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