How did autism shift from being a rare disorder, occurring in 3 in 10,000 people to an “epidemic,” occurring in 1 in 166 people? UNSTRANGE MINDS: Remapping the World of AUTISM (Pub date: February 1, 2007; Hardcover; $26.95), a global study of autism by Roy Richard Grinker, an anthropologist and father of a child with autism, answers this question.
Unstrange Minds begins with Roy Richard Grinker’s personal story: his family’s battles with the school system, the rare orchid his daughter Isabel plucked at the Smithsonian, and a day in Monet’s garden that changed Isabel forever. But because Grinker is an anthropologist as well as a father, Unstrange Minds takes us across the globe-to South Korea, South Africa, Peru, and India.
Based on his work in the United States and abroad, Unstrange Minds presents the controversial idea that there is no evidence for an autism epidemic. Instead, the high rates of prevalence and diagnosis today are instead evidence that scientists are finally counting cases correctly. And this is a good thing, not only for the US but for the world, including cultures that have only just begun to learn about autism.