Podcast
On Being with Krista Tippett
In this book, Collins explores autism and its presence in history and society. He notes that autistic people are often described as aliens among humans, but argues that understanding them is key to understanding humanity itself.
Autists are described by others and by themselves as aliens among humans. But there's an irony to this for precisely the opposite is true. They are us and to understand them is to begin to understand...
— Episode: Paul Collins and Jennifer Elder — Autism...
Episode: Paul Collins and Jennifer Elder — Autism and Human...
In this book, Collins explores autism and its presence in history and society. He notes that autistic people are often described as aliens among humans, but argues that understanding them is key to understanding humanity itself.
Autists are described by others and by themselves as aliens among humans. But there's an irony to this for precisely the opposite is true. They are us and to understand them is to begin to understand what it means to be human.
A disability is usually defined in terms of what is missing, but autism is as much about what is abundant as what is missing an over-expression of the very traits that make our species unique.
Other animals are social, but only humans are capable of abstract logic. The autistic, out-human, the humans and we can scarcely recognize the result.
Episode: [Unedited] Paul Collins and Jennifer Elder with Kr...
It was written shortly after the diagnosis of the author's child with autism, detailing the experience of new parents coming to terms with their child's diagnosis. The author also explored the history of autism and the traits seen in family members and related professions.
How can it be that we left our house an hour ago with a healthy toddler and returned with a disabled one?
I also was...Yeah. Did you have that same...Absolutely.
And so I think that I, you know, I just didn't want to...think...I didn't want to take anything just on a face value.
There'd be a lot of children diagnosed with autism. Right. And we didn't want to just rush headlong into it.
It was in the middle of that that that I started realizing that this looked pretty clearly like an early case of autism.
Episode: Paul Collins and Jennifer Elder — Autism and Human...
In this book, Collins explores autism, noting that autistics are described as aliens among humans, but that they are "us". Understanding them is key to understanding what it means to be human.
Autists are described by others and by themselves as aliens among humans. But there's an irony to this for precisely the opposite is true. They are us and to understand them is to begin to understand what it means to be human.
A disability is usually defined in terms of what is missing, but autism is as much about what is abundant as what is missing an over-expression of the very traits that make our species unique.
The autistic, out-human, the humans and we can scarcely recognize the result.
Episode: [Unedited] Paul Collins and Jennifer Elder with Kr...
Paul Collins started writing this book shortly after his son's autism diagnosis; it was published in 2004 when his son was five years old.
How can it be that we left our house an hour ago with a healthy toddler and returned with a disabled one?
And so I think that I, you know, I just didn't want to...think...I didn't want to take anything just on a face value.
it was actually surprisingly difficult to get a really straight answer from anybody about this.
And so I...I finished it about a year later when he was...four and a half.