AN ESSENTIAL, URGENT GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING AUTISM AND THE AUTISTIC SPECTRUM FROM THE LEADING PSYCHOANALYST IN HIS FIELD
Strikingly clear, humane and helpful, this is an essential book for anyone seeking to understand autism and the autistic spectrum. Drawing on many years of clinical experience and research, as well as the testimonies of autistic people, it is an up-to-the minute account of the many indicative features of autism and how they have been assessed and treated over almost a century.
As rates of autism diagnosis escalate in almost all high-income countries, researchers today mostly agree that there is no single cause or even single clinical picture of autism. Rather than a neat and well-defined entity, autism is described as a spectrum or constellation of traits, varying in intensity, distribution and severity, with practically everyone in the general population showing at least some autistic trait or feature.
At the same time, there has been a radical split between the ways in which autism is perceived. For many, it is a disorder, a pathology based on a deficit, whereas for others it is an identity, a natural variation in human cognitive and behavioural diversity.
For anyone facing the special challenges of autism, it can be hard to find clarity amid such complexity and contradiction, making Darian Leader's illuminating guide to the field of autism research and treatment particularly welcome.
'A compelling and essential book. We grow as we read it' Susie Orbach
'One of our most important contemporary thinkers' Guardian
| ISBN: | 9781405992374 |
| Publication date: | 3rd September 2026 |
| Author: | Darian Leader |
| Publisher: | Penguin Books an imprint of Penguin Books Ltd |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 192 pages |
| Genres: |
Coping with / advice about autism / Asperger’s Lacanian psychoanalysis Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome |
AN ESSENTIAL, URGENT GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING AUTISM AND THE AUTISTIC SPECTRUM FROM THE LEADING PSYCHOANALYST IN HIS FIELD
Strikingly clear, humane and helpful, this is an essential book for anyone seeking to understand autism and the autistic spectrum. Drawing on many years of clinical experience and research, as well as the testimonies of autistic people, it is an up-to-the minute account of the many indicative features of autism and how they have been assessed and treated over almost a century.
As rates of autism diagnosis escalate in almost all high-income countries, researchers today mostly agree that there is no single cause or even single clinical picture of autism. Rather than a neat and well-defined entity, autism is described as a spectrum or constellation of traits, varying in intensity, distribution and severity, with practically everyone in the general population showing at least some autistic trait or feature.
At the same time, there has been a radical split between the ways in which autism is perceived. For many, it is a disorder, a pathology based on a deficit, whereas for others it is an identity, a natural variation in human cognitive and behavioural diversity.
For anyone facing the special challenges of autism, it can be hard to find clarity amid such complexity and contradiction, making Darian Leader's illuminating guide to the field of autism research and treatment particularly welcome.
'A compelling and essential book. We grow as we read it' Susie Orbach
'One of our most important contemporary thinkers' Guardian
Autisms features in the following genres: Lacanian psychoanalysis, Coping with / advice about autism / Asperger’s, Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome, Popular psychology
Autisms is available in Paperback
Autisms was written by Darian Leader and published by Penguin Books an imprint of Penguin Books Ltd
Autisms has 192 pages
£8.99