Autism: Explaining the Enigma

This is a book for researchers primarily. It introduces Frith's theory of weak central coherence as an underlying mechanism in autism. The theory runs (in a nutshell) that autistic individuals do not exhibit context appropriate responses to situation, events, etc. Relevance theory (cf. Sperber & Wilson) oils the wheels of Frith's theory. The book opens with a long exegesis on a historical case and performs more than a bit of post mortem diagnosis. Such rational reconstructions of the past can be either very rivetting or tiresome. I wasn't convinced that the story avoided the latter pitfall. More enjoyable if shortened.The rest of the book concentrates on theories of autism and their testability. The tussle between theory of mind (cf. Baron-Cohen's book: Mindblindness) is discussed and gives a brief foretaste of disputes that dominated the nineties'. However, the difficulty that central coherence itself faces is how to shape it into a coherent scientific theory? Frith doesn't entirely skirt this issue and there is much to be gained from simply reflecting on her approach to theory development.Be warned that lighting up the research stage is a major focus of the work, and this will limit it's appeal. My final comment is not to buy this edition of the book, but to wait for the June 2003 edition. It can only be better.

This book explains very clearly what autism is and what it isn?t. The book reads almost like a detective story as Frith guides the reader gradually into building an understanding of the nature of autism. She begins by simultaneously attacking the questions of how long autism has been affecting humans and whether bad parenting causes autism by reviewing the literature concerning wild or neglected children. She notes that some of the famous cases of wild children, such as the wild boy of Aveyron were probably autistic, based on their behavior following discovery, while others such as Genie were not, in spite of extreme neglect. Her argument is that if horrific abuse and neglect did not result in autism in Genie, then certainly any parents who treat their children better than Genie?s parents treated her could not be blamed in any way for causing autism in their children.Frith?s central claim is that autism consists of a lack of drive towards central coherence. That is, autistic individuals are unable to or unmotivated to put different pieces of information together to construct a whole. This results in delayed language development, since autistic children lack the drive to distinguish speech sounds from random background noises, or deduce rules of grammar from sentences they are exposed to. Autistic individuals also have trouble learning social skills for the same reason, and they develop a very literal understanding of language. To support this theory, Frith draws on numerous ingeniously designed psychological studies that tease apart what autistic individuals can and cannot do.While Frith doesn?t have any definite answers of what causes autism or how it can be prevented, she notes that there may be genetic causes in some cases. She also points out that about 75% of autistic individuals also have additional mental handicaps. She suggests that in many cases, perhaps even the majority, autism is just one of the problems in a brain that has suffered some sort of damage or injury during development. Towards the end of the book, the author notes that she doesn?t provide many specific ideas for treatment. Instead, she offers her scientific explorations into the nature of autism, in the hope that others might use this information to help autistic individuals develop ways to cope with or compensate for their challenges.This book is highly academic and it draws on hundreds of published studies. It will be an essential reference for anyone interested in the topic.

Having recently been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, I have been collecting books on autism and asperger's syndrome, and this one is one of the best in my collection. I like the way Uta Frith writes, she always has lots of data, hers are always good solid scientific books. One interesting thing is the picture on the cover. First, I thought well, it's just some picture Frith likes, and then in the book she starts analyzing it. Wow, it's about some people working to cheat another person! This is held up to be some kind of healthy normality that we poor people with autism spectrum disorders can't "enjoy". Well I want no part of it. To me it's far more interesting to look at the clothing the people are wearing in the picture, I have spent hours looking at it - the clothing of that time is incredible, and further, the artist had to have good enough paints to reproduce it in the painting. Now that's interesting! I guess that's a lot of the difference right there, here's Uta Frith crying in her Wheaties because people like me are behind in appreciating cheating, and meanwhile I'm more interested in how incredible the picture is visually, and have no desire to cheat anyone. Uta Frith quotes some fairy tale about a mermaid who tried to become human and never could walk right and hurt all the time, and wasn't liked anyway among humans, etc. and compares that to autism-spectrum people, which isn't very nice, and she also talks about autism like it's physically painful or something, which it's not, but all in all I still really like her books because they're scientific. I agree with the lack of "theory of mind" stuff and now that I know the exact definitions of the words, I agree that at least in my case I have "sympathy" but not "empathy". I think this book can be a big help to someone who wants to understand autism.

As a professional counselor who recently started a support group for parents with autistic children this book has given me vital information on how to conceptualize this disorder. This knowledge has enabled me to connect with parents in a very realistic manner. When I interact with them and answer their questions, they hear the ring of truth in what I communicate to them about their child's behaviors and reality. I am very grateful to Uta Frith for writing such a fine book.

A classic of modern research into autism, this book explains clearly and readably the theory that autism is caused by the neurologically-caused lack of a "theory of mind", which makes the actions of others confusing and baffling to the person with autism.