Literature about Autism, Limited As It Is

In relation to a personal project, I was looking for new literature regarding autism. At school, I don't have much, and I don't exactly remember what I have at home, so I went shopping for some new stuff. I was looking possibly for autobiography, but mostly literary and psychological analysis.

And, wow, was I disappointed in some ways.

I found some interesting things, but on the whole I was surprised how easily the very numerous amounts of books could be group into rather simple categories. There was the help guides, autobiography (more limited than I knew it was, but still quite a bit out there), environmental-blame books, the help guides, the inspirational stories, a little bit of non-fiction, an even smaller amount of work in the humanities, the larger body of psychological analysis, and the help guides.

Oh, did I mention the help guides?

I was really surprised by the sheer volume. It was hard to get a full grasp of what was said in all of them, though some were more interesting than others at glance by means of the concepts in the review. Indeed, it makes sense, considering that people really don't have experience in raising autistics or living as one in a non-autistic society (and there are very significant differences). But you begin to wonder, looking through all of the titles, how many of them could actually stick out from the others, and often if they were saying anything useful.

Then there were the inspirational stories, the ones that I tend to dislike. Think in terms of Jenn McCarthy's Louder than Words. I dislike them in large part because they always claim to have eradicated the autism (and never have), sometimes promote a "miracle" (where there is none), and tend to promote the view that autism somehow "takes" the child away (if that happened, I'm really not coming back, am I?).

The general literature coming from the scientific and psychological perspective is present, as one would hope. I don't agree with all of it, but it's in large far more on the ball than anything else. And even when I don't agree with it, I can see rationally why the author came to the conclusion and under what assumptions it was made, which is far less exasperating than the dramatic leap of salvation.

Overall, though, it was frustrating to very little otherwise unique literature. It did exist, and I definently grabbed most of what I thought interesting (with one notable exception; while the children's stories in relation to autism were heartwarming and facinating to see, they were not suitable for my purposes), it was still the far minority of the work. Perhaps there will be more diversity in the literature soon, but right now there's just not nearly enough.

As an end, I want to thank those from the humanities who, indeed, did write on the subject, because I think that perspective really puts a necessary frame on autism. It beats out a self-help guide any day.