A father's observations about autism in historical context
What does an eminent anthropologist have to save about current events?
From Roy Richard Grinker’s guest essay on 24 September 2015 for the New York Times, entitled “Autism Has Always Existed. We Haven’t Always Called It Autism,” one can learn a helluva a lot about autism in human history and in contemporary society. Professor Grinker, who teaches and studies anthropology at George Washington University, is an accomplished scholar—and he has a daughter who has autism. His essay comes from those two areas of strength, and it delivers valuable insights into autism today.
In the NYT essay, he weaves together historical concepts about disability with his personal experience about his daughter’s life. His analysis integrates sociocultural observations about children with disabilities sub-Sharan African cultures, orthodox Jewish groups, and Navajo Indian nations with his experiences of his daughter’s birthday celebrations and current events in the US government’s focus on autism.
His treatment of autism is at once both very immediate and simultaneously without a specific time. Throughout it he brings scientific evidence into the picture so that the result is a personally and historically grounded recitation of what we are now discussing in our conversations about autism. Readers will find hints about diagnostic substitution, false premises that misled us, and much more.
The first few paragraphs illustrate Professor Grinker’s presentation of the personal and societal context for understanding autism:
When I look back at home videos of my daughter Isabel, I see the signs of autism clearly. But at the time, in 1992, I couldn’t. Autism was still considered rare. In one video, when Isabel was 15 months old, she sits quietly, putting coins in a piggy bank. She doesn’t respond to her name or look at us. My wife and I marvel at her focus and precision and predict she will be a scientist.
In a widely anticipated news conference on Monday, President Trump declared that there was “nothing more important” in his presidency than reducing the prevalence of autism. He claimed that his administration would virtually eliminate the condition, which he called a “horrible crisis” and which a top federal health official suggested might be “entirely preventable.”
The administration’s project is built on the premise that an autism diagnosis is a terrible tragedy and that scientists and doctors have failed to prevent what Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has called an “epidemic.”
The piece is long (nearly 20 min of listening; maybe a 15-min read?). I’ve been back to re-read it and the effort was worth it. Highly recommended. “Autism Has Always Existed. We Haven’t Always Called It Autism” by Roy Richard Grinker.1
Dear Readers of Special Education Today who would like to learn more about Professor Ginker’s research might find his books of informative. I have not read any of the (maybe) half dozen of them, but here are two that might be of particular interest: 2
2007: Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism (ISBN 0465027636)
2021: Nobody’s Normal: How Culture Created the Stigma of Mental Illness (ISBN 978-0-393-53164-0)
Footnote
It’s in the Times, so subscribers to the NYT should see it readily, but others may find that it’s behind a paywall. Sorry…SET is too tiny to make “The Gray Lady” give it to us for free, Sigh.
I get no compensation for providing these links nor from purchases you might make after following them.