Autism and the Myth of the Person Alone

Autism and the Myth of the Person Alone By Douglas Biklen with Richard Attfield, Larry Bissonnette, Lucy Blackman, Jamie Burke, Alberto Frugone, Tito Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay, and Sue Rubin (New York: University Press, 2005) The goal of Autism and the Myth of the Person Alone is to debunk the social myth that implicitly links cognition with verbal communication abilities. Douglas Biklen would rather we "presume competence. " This book provides numerous opportunities for the reader to question why it has taken us so long to recognize that judgment of competence based on mere superficial interaction is very misleading. In 1912, Eugene Bleuler, a Swiss psychiatrist, first introduced the term "autism. " However, it was not until 1943, when Leo Kanner, a psychiatrist from Johns Hopkins, used the word to describe eleven of his young patients, that "autism" was recognized as a classification of medical interest. Kanner used the Greek term "autos" meaning self, to describe the behavioral similarities of his patients: they all seemed to lack interest in other people. Today we know that autism is a neurobiological condition with varying degrees of impairment in communication, social interactions, and repetitive behaviors. A lot of recent professional research has employed quantitative methods and has focused on the diagnosis and treatment of autism and other related disorders under the broader classification of Pervasive Developmental Disorders. Epidemiological issues of incidence and prevalence have also been of great concern to the research community in recent years. The fact that Biklen reports on autism, then, is not groundbreaking. But his selection of coauthors is of great importance. Biklen approaches autism from a very different petspective than the researchers who preceded him on rhis topic. He employed a qualitative research design for a study he conducted over a period of two years. This global ethnography brought together seven people from around the world. Every one of Biklen s coauthors has been labeled as autistic. Several were also classified as "retarded. " But, even with these disability labels, this amazing group of individuals has enjoyed success. The book begins with an inttoduction and discussion on methods, in which Biklen explains his process of inductive inquiry and purposeful sampling. This is an unusual perspective in an area in which deductive inquiry is the norm. Chapter 1 frames autism as we know it today and contrasts it to the lives of the individuals sharing their autobiographies. Biklen challenges the reader to look through a new lens to understand the dynamic, human component of autism. He argues that autism has been framed as a social construction not unlike culture and race. Observers make judgments without the benefit of input from the observed. Chapters 2 through 7 are composed of two parts. The first part of each chapter is an introduction written by Biklen to give us the context based on his interactions with the individual, and the second part is written by a coauthor In Chapter 2, for example, Sue Rubin, whom some will remember as the young California woman showcased in the CNN documentary, "Autism Is a World," which Biklen coproduced, gives her commentary on the 1943 writings of Leo Kanner. …