Archive for August, 2006

Autistic savant

August 31, 2006

A genius explains – [excerpt] “Daniel Tammet is an autistic savant. He can perform mind-boggling mathematical calculations at breakneck speeds. But unlike other savants, who can perform similar feats, Tammet can describe how he does it. He speaks seven languages and is even devising his own language. Now scientists are asking whether his exceptional abilities [...]

Posted in autism spectrum No Comments »

Neurodiversity – when?

August 26, 2006

Neurodiversity is bound to come – but it will take some time. Reminds me of that quote by Schopenhauer about truth: “All truth passes through 3 stages: First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as self-evident.” And then people are going to go – ‘oh yeah, neurodiversity, sure, not [...]

Posted in autism spectrum, psychiatry and labels 2 Comments »

Getting the truth out on autism

August 16, 2006

Omigosh! It’s her! The woman on the site Getting the Truth Out: http://www.gettingthetruthout.org/ is the very same woman who maintains the blog Ballastexistenz, Amanda Baggs: http://ballastexistenz.autistics.org/?p=52 This page is my favourite. You can say – oh my – some sort of splinter skill in that video. http://www.gettingthetruthout.org/pagee001.html But I say – Oh wow – and now check out her blog. Doesn’t [...]

Posted in autism spectrum, psychiatry and labels 5 Comments »

Expanding Definition of Autism

August 10, 2006

Found these great articles by Thomas Sowell, and although I’m liberal, not conservative, and I don’t entirely agree with all his views, I really admire his no-nonsense style. Here are excerpts from two articles he’s written for Capitalism Magazine on the expanding definition of autism. http://capmag.com/article.asp?ID=1762 Expanding Definitions and Suspicious Statistics Thomas Sowell (July 30, 2002) “…A child who is likely [...]

Posted in autism spectrum, psychiatry and labels No Comments »

Autism Spectrum Epidemic

August 6, 2006

When I wrote that there really are some good psychiatrists out there, I meant people like Dr. Sami Timini who writes with such sincerity and integrity. He’s written this superb book: Pathological Child Psychiatry and the Medicalization of Childhood For a synopsis of this book, from Google:  “Currently, it is common practice among the child psychiatric establishment to [...]

Posted in autism spectrum, psychiatry and labels 1 Comment »