Unstrange Minds: A Father Remaps the World of Autism

New
Hardcover
2008
$13.91

This title provides new answers to this most puzzling and often controversial of disorders, combining moving stories, personal experience and the latest science. It is about Anthropologist and father Roy Richard Grinker's heartfelt, deeply touching quest to understand autism - and his powerful, compelling conclusions.When Roy Richard Grinker's daughter Isabel was diagnosed with autism in 1994, he knew nothing about the condition. It was considered rare, occurring in about 3 in every 10,000 births. Within ten years, however, most Westerners would be familiar with autism. Scientists have now reported rates as high as 1 in 100, and autism has been called an epidemic.Driven to learn more about this dramatic increase - both as an anthropologist and a father - Grinker set forth on a journey around the world, talking to mothers and fathers, physicians and teachers, advocates and scientists. Travelling from Africa and India to East Asia, from the mountains of Appalachia to America's National Institutes of Health, Grinker made a surprising and controversial discovery about the so-called autism epidemic that would change both his understanding of the disorder and his relationship with his daughter.Filled with moving stories, and informed by the latest science and Grinker's own experience, Unstrange Minds is a powerful testament to a father's quest for the truth, and is urgently relevant to anyone whose life is touched by one of history's most puzzling disorders.

Synopsis

This title provides new answers to this most puzzling and often controversial of disorders, combining moving stories, personal experience and the latest science. It is about Anthropologist and father Roy Richard Grinker's heartfelt, deeply touching quest to understand autism - and his powerful, compelling conclusions.When Roy Richard Grinker's daughter Isabel was diagnosed with autism in 1994, he knew nothing about the condition. It was considered rare, occurring in about 3 in every 10,000 births. Within ten years, however, most Westerners would be familiar with autism. Scientists have now reported rates as high as 1 in 100, and autism has been called an epidemic.Driven to learn more about this dramatic increase - both as an anthropologist and a father - Grinker set forth on a journey around the world, talking to mothers and fathers, physicians and teachers, advocates and scientists. Travelling from Africa and India to East Asia, from the mountains of Appalachia to America's National Institutes of Health, Grinker made a surprising and controversial discovery about the so-called autism epidemic that would change both his understanding of the disorder and his relationship with his daughter.Filled with moving stories, and informed by the latest science and Grinker's own experience, Unstrange Minds is a powerful testament to a father's quest for the truth, and is urgently relevant to anyone whose life is touched by one of history's most puzzling disorders.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 352
Edition: First Edition
Publisher: Icon Books
Published: 05 Jun 2008
ISBN 10: 1840468939
ISBN 13: 9781840468939

Media Reviews

`Superbly written - Grinker's voice is candid, heartbreaking and humorous, balanced with straightforward, informative scientific exploration. This ensures the book appeals to the general reader, and is of immense interest and benefit to anyone personally touched by autism.' -- Belfast News Letter
`A highly readable yet authoritative survey of how autism has become the hot topic that it has, particularly in the United States and United Kingdom. His book is also one of the first serious attempts to survey what autism means to other cultures ... one of the best studies I have read of this whole field ... a powerful counterblast against those who pursue evidence that environmental insults are the `cause' of autism.' -- Iain McClure, British Medical Journal
`By using cultures from around the world to help us frame our understanding of autism, the author gives a fresh, scholarly yet warm and personal book.' -- National Autistic Society
`Fascinating and original ... like every individual, Isabel Grinker is not just a collection of symptoms. She's an individual with unique strengths, talents and problems. In relating his `study' of her to his assessment of how autism is perceived worldwide, her father has performed a valuable service' -- Charlotte Moore, Spectator
`Roy Richard Grinker explores the way different cultures define and respond to autism; this intelligent and original book opens new areas in the autism debate.' -- Charlotte Moore, Spectator
`A powerful memoir of his family's experience ... it is impossible not to be moved' -- Times
`An amazing, enlightening read ... Bringing to light the positives of autism, as well as the terrible stigma surrounding it, Grinker succeeds in his aim to make visible those who are invisible.' -- Waterstones Books Quarterly
`Superbly written - Grinker's voice is candid, heartbreaking and houmourous, balanced with straightforward, informative scientific exploration. This ensures the book appeals to the general reader, and is of immense interest and benefit to anyone personally touched by autism.' -- Verbal, Ireland
`Richard Grinker's excellent book paints a unique biographical picture of his child's experience, conveys deep parental concern, and reminds us of the unmet needs of such children.' -- Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Centre at Cambridge University
'A wise and compassionate book. Grinker's research is as wide-ranging as it is open-minded, bringing together the precision of social science and the artistry of memoir.' -- Andrew Solomon, author `The Noonday Demon'

Author Bio

Roy Richard Grinker is Professor of Anthropology and the Human Sciences at George Washington University in Washington, DC. He is the author of four other books, including the widely-acclaimed In the Arms of Africa: The Life of Colin M. Turnbull. He lectures widely about autism, and lives in suburban Maryland. His website is www.unstrange.com