Comments on: The truth about autism: Not toxic and not the enemy

By: BBDO

BBDO — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 05:49:42 +0000

[...] caught up in responding to the Center’s “public awareness” campaign (a word whose military overtones I dislike, as if the whole point of “Ransom Notes” is so that someone can say veni, [...]

By: Fighting Words

Fighting Words — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 15:01:05 +0000

[...] While such fighting words are frequently heard in reference to autism, I prefer (anot to use such military metaphors as I wrote back in March: People and parents in particular draw on these metaphors of warfare [...]

By: jill

jill — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 18:49:38 +0000

Furthermore, I have also read Catherine Maurice’s book. I can see some of your opinion on the metaphors, but I think she was being truthful to the reader about her personal journey. And as much as you or another person might not like her analagies I found her to be honest and insightful. I believe many people can relate to her approach.

By: jill

jill — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 18:26:51 +0000

You are so right. We should not be treating the core problem in diabetes in children either. Love them for who they are!!! And why medically intervene in a child with cystic fibrosis to support optimum health? Let it be. Seriously folks….if there is something physiologically going on with a child that can be assisted to enhance their learning and skills to live why wouldn’t a parent look into it? I don’t think any one of those parents are saying not to accept people for who they are, but are trying to help their children by looking at an entire picture when they attempt to assist in their mental and physical health.

By: Calling on the Environmental Bounty Hunters

Calling on the Environmental Bounty Hunters — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 23:39:11 +0000

[...] hunters be the next “professionals” called in to hunt down evidence of environmental toxins of potential harm to autistic children………… On the other hand, a June 7th [...]

By: What Do You Think When You Hear the Word “Autism”?

What Do You Think When You Hear the Word “Autism”? — Thu, 31 May 2007 15:24:50 +0000

[...] some other contexts, think autism and you hear about mercury, toxicity, Lupron (a drug which suppresses sex hormones), a train wreck, the legal disputes concerning the [...]

By: Autism Vox » The Enduring Heart of the Autism Mother and Other Metaphors

Autism Vox » The Enduring Heart of the Autism Mother and Other Metaphors — Sun, 13 May 2007 15:46:55 +0000

[...] of fighting and war—-military metaphors—-in referring to autism, as I noted in The truth about autism: Not toxic and not the enemy: People and parents in particular draw on these metaphors of warfare against the external enemy of [...]

By: Autism Vox » Autism Awareness News Coverage

Autism Vox » Autism Awareness News Coverage — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 14:55:01 +0000

[...] a lot of work and worry. I think this is what parents feel; I am myself wary of fighting metaphors when talking about autism. I’ll rather quote what a mother said in the last article: [...]

By: Autism Vox » And the Band Plays On

Autism Vox » And the Band Plays On — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 14:27:35 +0000

[...] Elizabeth Horn Nelson, whose daughter is autistic, draws on the military metaphor of autism extensively in Band of Mothers, her piece in the April 11th Huffington Post. Nelson, who [...]

By: Autism Vox » Autism Speaks Now

Autism Vox » Autism Speaks Now — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 06:47:30 +0000

[...] That is not true, or not yet true: It is a prediction I made half-seriously to a friend last week after I saw that Autism Speaks was promoting the Discover Magazine article on autism not being just in the head. “Autism Speaks congratulates these researchers for their important contributions to changing the way autism is conceptualized,” the Autism Speaks website noted, and then “It will only be through support of such innovative research [on ‘brain and non-brain systems’] that the causes and biological basis of autism will be resolved.” I had this statement in mind as I watched the new Autism Speaks video, A World Where….., with its absolutist pronouncements of “making autism a word for the history books” and of creating a world in which “no family has to live with autism”—a world, that is, in which, with both cause and cure known, there would be no more autism; in which autism, having been combatted, would be defeated. [...]