Page 1 of 1 [ 4 posts ] 

B19
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 Jan 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 9,993
Location: New Zealand

17 Sep 2015, 6:15 pm

http://nyupress.org/books/9780814799284/

I haven't read this book and would like to hear from anyone who has. He did his research by actually interviewing adults on the spectrum (how rare it that, it's shameful the extent to which we are excluded from some of the research which would suit this method).

As the link says, his findings were quite different from the stigmatising myths so widely circulated. His qualitative study took two years to complete.

Why, I wonder, did this book fly under the radar? Because it challenged the reigning theories, stigmas and concepts of how autism is preconceived.

I read the introductory chapter free on Amazon (google "Autism and the Myth of Being Alone") and became extremely interested. It's the sort of book that some older members here, including me, have wanted to read for ages. So glad I have found it. Will buy for myself as a birthday present!



Nambo
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 31 Aug 2007
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,882
Location: Prussia

17 Sep 2015, 6:48 pm

Living alone hasn't been a myth for me.



BuyerBeware
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 28 Sep 2011
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,476
Location: PA, USA

17 Sep 2015, 6:50 pm

Well, right off the top, I must say that I think you hit the "WHY" nail right smack on the head.

Thank God for autistic stubbornness. Whether this is MY autism story or not (and really, who gives a flip?). The entire effing world WILL hear OUR stories, through OUR words/eyes, and IMO anyway be better off for it.

--BeeBee, self-righteous as hell and madder than whiz.


_________________
"Alas, our dried voices when we whisper together are quiet and meaningless, as wind in dry grass, or rats' feet over broken glass in our dry cellar." --TS Eliot, "The Hollow Men"


B19
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 Jan 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 9,993
Location: New Zealand

17 Sep 2015, 6:54 pm

Of course not everyone, Nambo; from the reviews I read, he didn't conclude that. What he is challenging is the myth that all adult autists are loners. He found that this was simply not true, yet it was a myth applied generally, about everyone on the spectrum very often, and even stated as indubitable fact (unexamined).I have even read blogs by psychologists perpetuating that myth. You still often see it the press now too. It reinforces the other myth of homicidal Aspergers weirdos who shoot are timebombs waiting to shoot up people, even though vast majority of these crimes are committed by neurotypicals - as you would expect, given that there are so many more of them. I am patiently waiting for the headline "neurotypical man shoots people at mall".