The autism matrix
Subtitle: the social origins of the autism epidemic
By: Gil Eyal ... [et al.].
Publisher: Polity
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Cambridge, UK; Malden, MA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 312
ISBN-13: 9780745643991; 9780745644004
Subjects: Autism in children; Autistic Disorder; Deinstitutionalization; Autistic children; Treatment; Diagnosis; Services for; Care; History
Description: "The authors argue that the recent rise in autism should be understood as an 'aftershock' of the real earthquake, which was the deinstitutionalization of mental retardation in the mid-1970s. This entailed a radical transformation not only of the institutional matrix for dealing with developmental disorders of childhood, but also of the cultural lens through which we view them. It opened up a space for viewing and treating childhood disorders as neither mental illness nor mental retardation, neither curable nor incurable, but somewhere in-between"--From publisher description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 287-306) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: the autism matrix; title: The puzzle of variation in autism rates; title: The feebleminded; title: The surveillance of childhood; title: Deinstitutionalization; title: "An existence as close to the normal as possible": normalization; title: Childhood schizophrenia; title: The rise of the therapies; title: Bernard Rimland and the formation of NSAC; title: The atypical children; title: Asperger and neurodiversity; title: The space of autism therapies and the making and remaking of the spectrum; title: Conclusion.