In a Different Key - John Donvan

'A magnificent opus ... extraordinary spellbinding ... this book does what no other on autism has done' Ann Bauer Washington Post *Pulitzer finalist 2017* The stunning history of autism as it has been discovered and felt by parents children and doctors Nearly seventy-five years ago Donald Triplett of Forest Mississippi became the first child diagnosed with autism. In a Different Key tells the extraordinary story of the world his diagnosis created - a riveting human drama that takes us across continents and through some of the great social movements of the twentieth century. The history of autism is above all the story of families fighting for a place in the world for their children. It is the story of women like Ruth Sullivan who rebelled against a medical establishment that blamed refrigerator mothers for causing autism of fathers who pushed scientists to dig harder for treatments of parents who forced schools to accept their children. But many others played starring roles too: doctors like Leo Kanner who pioneered our understanding of autism scientists who sparred over how to treat autism and those with autism like Temple Grandin and Ari Ne'eman who explained their inner worlds and championed a philosophy of 'neurodiversity'. This is also a story of fierce controversy: from the question of whether there is truly an autism 'epidemic' and whether vaccines played a part in it to scandals involving 'facilitated communication' one of many treatments that have proved to be blind alleys. And there are dark turns too: we learn about experimenters feeding LSD to children with autism or shocking them with electricity to change their behaviour; and the authors reveal for the first time that Hans Asperger discoverer of the syndrome named after him may have cooperated with the Nazis in sending disabled children to their deaths. By turns intimate and panoramic In a Different Key takes us on a journey from an era when families were shamed and children were condemned to institutions to one in which parents and people with autism push not simply for inclusion but for a new understanding of autism: as difference rather than disability.

TITLE: In a Different Key

AUTHOR: John Donvan

SKU: 9780241958179

PUBLISHER: Penguin Books Ltd

DATE PUBLISHED: 30/03/2017

PLACE PUBLISHED: United Kingdom

PAGES: 688

BINDING: Paperback / softback

LANGUAGE: English

DIMENSIONS: 129 mm x 198 mm x 29 mm

WEIGHT: 470 gr