Peter Hobson is professor of developmental
psychopathology at University College,
London. He is an expert on autism and has
published many research papers on this
intriguing condition. This book almost
exclusively deals with autism although the
title does not convey that impression.
Autism or autistic syndrome (AS) was first
described by Leo Kanner is 1943. The
prevalence rate of AS is about 30-40 per
100,000 children according to the Oxford
Textbook of Psychiatry. It is almost
four times as common in boys as in girls.
The reason for this in not known.
In his original description, Kanner proposed
three main features being typical of this
condition. These are abnormalities of
communication, restriction of interest and
behaviour, and faulty social development.
The abnormalities of communication appear at
quite an early stage in infancy and autistic
infants do not respond to affectionate
behaviour, as normal infants do. They also
avoid eye contact. As children they tend to
live in a world of their own. A mother of an
autistic child remarked, "He would pay no
attention to me and show no recognition of
me if I enter the room."
Autistic children have very restricted
interests and show an obsessive desire for
sameness. For example they insist on wearing
the same clothes, twiddling their finger
repeatedly and constantly playing the same
game. Social development is usually impaired
and they rarely make friends or initiate a
conversation.
This behaviour gets augmented by speech and
language disorder, which may also be
present. The flip side of this abnormal
behaviour is that a few may show
extraordinary talent in certain areas. For
example they may have a photographic memory
and amazing mathematical or artistic skills.
Dustin Hoffman's film "Rain man" opened the
eyes of thousands to the extraordinary mix
of abilities that characterize this
condition.
Autistic behaviour tends to improve with
time although total "normality is hardly
achieved. An autistic person describes
himself in this manner, "I really did not
know that there were other people until I
was seven years old. I then suddenly
realized that there were people. But not
like you do. I still have to remind myself
that there are people. I never could have a
friend. I really do not know what to do with
other people, really".
The author rightly points out that there is
a close connection between what happens
within a person's mind and what happens
between one person and another. Our
thoughts are not purely our thoughts. We are
being continuously affected by our
surroundings and the impulses that are going
into our brain. According to the author,
"the greater part of autistic children's
characteristic cognitive and language
difficulties arise as sequlace to the
children's relative failure to engage in
I-Thou relatedness with others.
What results from this failure are
difficulties in understanding and
identifying with the subjective orientations
and mental states of other people...". The
author is however, optimistic that autistic
children's basic impairments in
interpersonal relatedness can be repaired
and healed to a great extent.
In general, once a person can think about
his action and what he is doing and feeling,
he attains more control over his life. This
applies to all individuals and not just
autistic.
This book has numerous case histories of
autistic children and adults and provides a
wide knowledge of their behaviour patterns.
It carries an important message, that we can
learn from the disabled as much as we can
learn from the able. The front page has a
quotation which summaries this view. It
reads:
"O reader! Had you in your mind
such stores as silent thoughts can bring,
O gentle reader! You would find
A tale in every thing. -Wordsworth
The only problem I had with this book was
constant intermixing descriptions of normal
behaviour with that of the AS patients.
Probably the author wanted it this way, to
give the impression how close the normal and
autistic mind is. I found this somewhat
confusing having been used to medical books
which clearly delineate topics.
The book has many poems and quotations from
Shakespeare which makes it an enjoyable
read. I strongly recommend it to people
interested the subject of autism |
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