Re: Autism Spectrum Disorders as Context Blindness - a Link to the Book itself

[Guest guest]

Thank you for your comments . I love your commentary, so glad to have you

back

- Helen

Meyer wrote:

A very easy Internet search gives ya:

http://www.aapcpublishing.net/book/view/693/autism-as-context-blindness

Autism Asperger Publishing Company has snagged a real winner in

Vermeulen's book. He's an author best known on the continent rather than in this

country, since we have " learning psychologists " whose real expertise isn't

learning at all, but rather expertise in boosting their egos in very open

competition on the American market. They could care less about the universality

of their findings or whether they'er even valid at all, and this is a peculiarly

American treat in the field as a whole.

Ever since Piaget came up with his now partially discredited theses about how

children learn, the Europeans have been far advanced over their British and

American counterparts, especially if they're in Switzerland, or in some

relatively innocuous backwater, where they've been free to develop perfectly

common-sense theories and test them out bit by bit. Vermeulen is well-respected

on the Continent, but he doesn't like to travel and isn't actively looking for

any kind of a star following. Incidentally, on the Continent, the Belgians have

consistently " got it right. "

Remaining low key is, for example, how Lorna Wing and her colleagues -- among

them Uta Frith and Judith Gould -- came up with the Diagnostic Interview for

Social Communication, the only meticulously researched and validated autism

diagnostic instrument requiring rigorous and disciplined training before it can

be administered. That's why arrogant member of the psychological community in

the US continue to " boycott " learning about the DISCO which requires going to

the UK to get trained in its administration. Incidentally, due to the same

degree of caution and care in research came some of the best observations about

sensory issues by Olga Bogdashina, who's really become more of a Brit than an

Eastern European over the past ten years or so, but of the conservative research

and findings school more connected with the University of London rather than the

" flash and gee-whiz " school at Cambridge headed by Baron-Cohen.

Before Kingsley recently turned her interest into other areas than

autism, shehad been a strong but low-keysupporter of Vermeulen's work and

interest, as has Tony Attwood, and since Tony is still itinerant but is now

settling down to more of a senior status as a faculty member of a couple of

Australian universities, we're likely to see more of the mature observations of

both Vermeulen and Attwood in the area of cognition and autism, something we

Americans still can't seem to get right because of all the infighting and

backbiting that's endemic in our academy..

If someone on the list can afford the twenty five bucko's the book costs, please

do consider buying it and give it some kind of review here. I might very well

call up Myles, the publisher of AAPC to find out whether he could send me

a review copy, but that might be a long shot.

The one thing Vermeulen and Frith have done is to come up with a different way

of framing cognition so that and now Judity Beck's Cognitive Behavioral

Therapy can be more practically shorn of its obsessive features and trappings of

American psychodynamic obeisance to classical and neo-classical Freudian

clinical technique. If Attwood and Gaus can see their way clear of that

type of clutter, maybe there's some hope for developing short-term, practical

" re-thinking " work in cognitive behavioral approaches that are affordable,

short-term, and whose effectiveness can be quickly ascertained before they

entirely bankrupt clients and patients.

Therapy that's effective is distinctly NOT one size fits all when it comes to

adult autism.

N. Meyer

Grumpy out on the West Coast but delighted to read 's " find. "