FW: This week's show: What might autism teach us all about what it means to be human?

[Guest guest]

I listen to On Being every weekend, and

find it extremely interesting and enlightening. This weekend’s show

promises to be one that everyone should want to listen to and learn from;

whether or not you are directly affected by one or more individuals who have

been diagnosed with Autism or an Autism Spectrum Disorder.

~~Ruth

From: Krista Tippett

on Being [mailto:newsletter@...]

Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2011

12:21 PM

putney1963@...

Subject: This week's show: What

might autism teach us all about what it means to be human?

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About the Image

climbs on playground equipment in 2002 — the first year after

being diagnosed with autism.

(photo: Marc

)

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Autism

and Humanity

Long before autism had a name, it had a history — a mystery

shrouded in misunderstanding. But what might autism teach us all about

what it means to be human now? About our abilities. About our creativity

and differences.

What It Means

for Me to Be Human

The Centers for Disease Control report

that 1 in 110 children in the U.S. is now diagnosed somewhere on the

spectrum of autism. In other words, this is a condition that affects many

lives, many families.

General reporting and publicized controversies tend to focus on the

physiology and neurology of autism, or on possible causes and cures. As

I've followed such stories, I've longed to understand something about the

inner world of people with autism and those who love them. I've wanted to

hear about autism in terms of spirit, intellect, and human nature. And

when I discovered ' warm and erudite book Not Even Wrong: A Father's

Journey into the Lost History of Autism, I knew

I'd found a way in.

During a routine checkup, his beloved son was diagnosed with

autism at the age of two and a half. then went searching for

understanding in history and literature. He traced the winding process by

which 20th-century physicians finally diagnosed autism after centuries in

which it was conflated with very different conditions, such as

schizophrenia and Down syndrome. He had previously written about

eccentric characters and forgotten inventors in history, and he began to

find evidence of autism in some of these figures who had already captured

his attention. In his travels, he also experienced how the spectrum of

autism quietly reaches into centers of contemporary invention —

such as Microsoft.

Some of our programs feel like an " experience " in the making.

This one did. and Elder have opened my imagination

about what it means to be human, as well as what it means to be autistic,

without for a moment downplaying the debilitation that life with autism

also entails. I had imagined this condition to be thoroughly isolating

and inscrutable.

The very word " autism " comes from the Greek for

" self " — autos —

connoting a state of being in which a person seems quite literally to

live in his or her own world. And yet and help me grasp

that autism is not one thing but a spectrum on the vast continuum of

human personality. Autism has deepened their understanding of disability and

of intelligence, curiosity, and accomplishment.

Most thought-provoking of all, perhaps, are their stories of how life

with has imparted a new generosity and respectful good humor to

their dealings with each other and their families of origin. There is a

documented correlation between autism and families with achievement in

fields like engineering, music, mathematics, science — professions

that require an aptitude for logic and a capacity for intense, solitary

focus. You can read

a beautiful essay by the late scientist Jay Gould about his

son with autism.

writes this: " Autists are described by others — and by

themselves — as aliens among humans. But there's an irony to this,

for precisely the opposite is true. They are us, and to understand them

is to begin to understand what it means to be human. Think of it: a

disability is usually defined in terms of what is missing. But autism is

as much about what is abundant as what is missing, an overexpression of

the very traits that make our species unique. Other animals are social,

but only humans are capable of abstract logic. The autistic outhuman the

humans, and we can scarcely recognize the result. "

There is more in this hour of radio than I can evoke in these paragraphs.

And if you enjoy it, I'd encourage you to listen to my original, unedited

two-hour conversation with Elder and online or as a

podcast. It is full of illumination and warmth, and I didn't want it to

end.

I Recommend Reading:

Not Even

Wrong: A Father's Journey into the Lost History of Autism

by

' book is a delightfully written, moving, and deeply

informative memoir of one family's contemporary experience as well as a

tour through autism in historical, literary, social, and medical

perspective.

Autistic

Planet

by Elder

Elder has authored two illustrated books for children and

families. Autistic

Planet is a picture book that evokes a world

— imaginatively incorporating some of the motor traits and sensory

sensitivities that can make people with autism say they feel alien in

human society.

Different

Like Me: My Book of Autism Heroes describes

historical figures of great achievement who she and others believe might

have been somewhere on the vast spectrum of autism. Among them are the

scientist Isaac Newton, the primatologist Dian Fossey, the comedian Andy

Kaufmann, and the " father of modern computing " Alan Turing.

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