Aspies For Freedom

New Scientist
1st October 2005.

Letters to the Editor.
p. 19

The autism industry

From Michael Baron.

I am provoked by the timely article on autism (13 August, p 36) to repeat what I wrote some years ago in a letter you published (7 April 2001, p 53). I said then that autism expands with the number of people making a living from this neurological condition - researchers, statisticians, doctors, journalists, TV and film-makers, novelists, poets, alternative-medicine charlatans, administrators, staff of charities and private health care providers.

   The widened parameters of diagnosis of the disease to engulf larger and larger numbers of people have enabled Simon Baron-Cohen to reveal recently, "At least 40 people with Asperger syndrome are studying  at Cambridge University today." When I was there, 55 years ago, I am fairly sure the number was about the same. They were just eccentric chaps, that's all.

Loweswater, Cumbria, UK

*************************************************************

At first I found myself agreeing with it, especially the money-making aspect, but then he called it a "disease" and he stopped sounding like he had any clue what he was talking about.

Asperger's syndrome is certainly considered to be a disease by the medical profession, and classified as such in the current International Classification of Diseases 10th edition (ICD-10) where it has the reference code F84.5, so we can't fault the letter writer on that account.

Stella

The money making aspects -    Yes.  This is demonstrated by the number of clinics and centres rising up to train parents and therapists to work or treat children with autism.  They mostly exist because they can charge parents or insurance companies fees or receive grants from the government.  Often they offer nothing at all for adults with autism unless there is funding to be had.   Charities are run like businesses for the most part.  

Nobody is helping people with autism just as a philantropic mission.  (Am I wrong?  I hope so.)   Perhaps people with AS should at least get some help to organize some type of volunteer organization.  I am not sure of the needs of all people with AS that would need to be addressed.  I think this website is a start but people might need something on a more local basis to navigate various countries' social services.

I remember reading the original letter that this guy wrote, and i generally agreed with that letter.

Quote from letter to editor

Were they really just eccentric chaps? How does the letter writer know that? Did he know these "eccentric chaps" well enough to find out that the eccentricity was just harmless fun and only skin-deep? We all know that some aspies go to considerable lengths to conceal parts of their personalities or their own behaviours that they know others would not accept. I do this all the time.

It's nice to know that the writer appears to think that eccentricity is not a disease state, but I suspect that he does not understand the issues.

Ok, most people graduate college in their 20s so this writer is really old.

He probably doesn't know much about autism. Though I wonder if he remembers the Nazi bombings...

WWII buff here!

I know a young aspie who's brain is starting to resemble a computer simulation of WWII.

How Lili?

The kid keeps reading more and more books on the subject, building up the level of detail of information stored in the brain. This leads to further questions, and more reading and more research... I'm not sure where it will stop! The child likes to create historically accurate maps and models.

Sounds quite good actually, I am very interested in WW2 from the perspective if the Home Front in the UK.