My book on the history of autism was launched in London last Monday, June 28, 2010

Just to say that my new book,  A History of Autism:  Conversations with the Pioneers, published by Wiley-Blackwell, was launched at London’s Royal Society of Medicine last Monday, June 28, 2010.  It was a wonderful occasion, co-hosted by Dame Stephanie Shirley (who had financed the whole book so generously) and Autism Cymru, Wales’s remarkable national charity for autism. The guests included the likes of that true autism pioneer, Lorna Wing, and her colleague, Judy Gould (with whom she worked on the celebrated 1979 Camberwell study which led to their introduction of the concept of the autistic spectrum). Lorna, of course, also  coined the term Asperger’s sydrome in 1981. During the three years it took me to research and write my book, I travelled the globe to talk to the earliest professionals and parents who have played such a key role in broadening our understanding of the enigmatic condition which is autism. They included Leo Kanner’s closest colleague, Leon Eisenberg;  Hans Asperger’s daughter, Maria Asperger Felder, and some of his closest colleagues;  and the UK parent-pioneers  such as Lorna Wing and Michael Baron , as well as Professor Sir Michael Rutter (who is, of course, among the world’s leading autism experts but who also came on board very early in the 1960s to help Britain’s fledgling National Autistic Society).  I learnt about the  stigma still clinging to autism in parts of China, India, Mexico and elsewhere, but also about the promising research advances being made around the world.  I very much hope my book helps to demonstrate the major progress we have made in understanding the complexities of  autism but also where the continuing shortcomings lie.

Adam Feinstein