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Book reVIewS

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to our understanding of inclusive AutISm: A SoCIAl leArnIng DISABIlItY?
community. This confusion and the michael Baron reviews a lively, opinionated attempt to
conficts it can generate may account
for an occasional defensive tone in the understand and explain autism.
book that contrasts accounts of abuses understanding and charities, medical, educational and
and shortfalls in the practice of evaluating Autism theory social work professionals, publicists,
community services (which certainly By Nick Chown fction and flm writers and others needs
are there to see) and the ideals of the Published by Jessica Kingsley to know. It was not like this once.
intentional supportive community (which Publishers (2016)
human fallibility can also ISBN 978 1 78592 050 9 £20.00 Refreshing
compromise in practice). The frst generation of parents of
This is an excellent study of theory. today’s middle-aged adults, for the most
The book is a hamper of other interesting It is not a study of the day-to-day reality part, were convinced their ‘ineducable’
perspectives, though unfortunately no of ‘autism’ as experienced by the one children were at sea in an uncaring
accounts from intentional supportive in 100 persons in the United Kingdom society by their condition of
communities other than Camphill. estimated to have an autistic spectrum strangeness. Time was when
A historian traces the modern process disorder (ASD), or autistic spectrum psychiatrists, ignorant of Kanner and
that extracted people claimed for control condition (ASC) as defned by Section Asperger, preferred the diagnosis of
and treatment by doctors, and contrasts 1 of the 2009 Autism Act. It is not a juvenile schizophrenia, or childhood
the past 150 years of that regime guide to interventions, treatment, care, psychosis – a testament to the historic
with most of history, in which those or lifelong learning, nor to genetics. narrowness of their vision. The National
who survived their impairments were One may read this 367-page book Autistic Society said: “‘Autism’ was
seen as limited but harmless and and fnd no challenge to the devastating to parents who across
largely included. widespread use of the A-word today. the world experienced their children
as ‘mentally handicapped’.”
Researchers retrieve the missing voices The word ‘autism’ is the most No neuro-diversity then, no mental
of people with intellectual disabilities as convenient shorthand label at present health issues, no idea of the centrality
they understand and seek belonging for for a complex group of behavioural of a fundamental communication
themselves. A psychotherapist details the diffculties which in their effect range disorder. And no concept that, given
painstaking accommodations he makes from mild to severe. For how much the continuing changes in diagnostic
to treat people with intellectual longer is another question. Chown, criteria, this might well be a hydra-
disabilities and analyses the widespread correctly, in explaining ‘alternative headed social learning diffculty.
prejudice shared by too many of his interpretations of behaviour’
colleagues. A pharmacist identifes acknowledges the ‘ongoing debate... This book betrays its origins in lectures
health risks that follow a facile under- as to whether autism is a synonym at Sheffeld Hallam University. Other
standing of independence and choice. for disability or difference or both’. than its reluctance to consider the
In his view, which colours his contemporary validity of the A-word,
There is a description of the approach, ‘autism’ is a social learning and the absence of any reference to
possibilities and limits of social media. disability involving certain cognitive brain studies, it is necessary, lively and
There are descriptions of progress in differences. But when he considers the refreshingly opinionated.
social policy in Australia’s National adjectives ‘mild‘ and ‘severe’, severe is
Disability Insurance Scheme and in italics and prefaced by ‘so-called’. Chown knows his subject. This is an
support to open employment in the US It is surely both. Hence it is complex. essential accompaniment to teachings
state of Vermont. A change agent and and literature on the work in mainstream
scholar of social movements examines The debate is given new life by the schools, special units, by support
the many functions the idea of fndings of an Australian study, workers, in care homes: the daily
community serves, and weighs its published in Autism Research in interventions in the lives of thousands
potential to motivate progressive action January 2017, that while numbers in of men, women and children One day
against the dangers that a positive halo diagnosis have risen ‘the proportion there might be a cure, which some,
will cloak neglect and isolation. with severe features have declined‘. because of the singular gifts of a
Therefore, as we strive for a better and segment of the ‘autistic’ community,
The challenge to my own open- more accurate defnition of the central argue against. But for now we need
mindedness is a chapter that computes or core features of ‘autism’ (italicising acceptance of difference. And we need,
– on the basis of the alleged realities of it thus, is a way of expressing the too, a great leap forward in knowledge
social life revealed by neuropsychology underlying question – ‘is it the right of the psycho-biology of the human
and primatology – that the preferred word?’), this book is timely. brain, and thus of causation.
model of group homes for 10 to 15 An ever-expanding industry of This comprehensive understanding of
clients (sic) is almost certainly too small academics, care homes, schools, ‘autism’ theory is a step on that journey.
to allow people to make friends and
that groupings of 30 to 50 should be
preferred. I struggle to make sense of this Benefting from this book does not chapters present but on being willing to
chapter’s argument as something more depend on agreeing with the variety try on different perspectives. It deserves
than a parody of professional overreach. of points and perspectives its diverse to be widely and thoughtfully read.

24 Vol 30 No 3 | Spring 2017 Community Living www.cl-initiatives.co.uk