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‘Autreat’ is an annual conference and retreat for autistic people where they can do such things as perseverate, echo or rock, and avoid all social contact if desired. Emphasis is placed on the fact that attendees do not need to behave in a ‘neurotypical’ manner and that autistic types of behaviour will not be regarded as unusual or wrong. Autreat is one of an increasing number of organized groups for autism self-advocates or parent-advocates in the United States that seek to challenge conventional scientific wisdom about autism spectrum disorders. Chloe Silverman's new book delves both tactfully and provocatively into the structure of these organizations and tells a powerful story of the history of autism advocacy in the United States. She focuses on the part that parent-groups have played since the 1960s in demanding better services and treatment for their children, demonstrating how these groups have collaborated in order to challenge the claims of psychological professionals and the competitive trends of scientific research.
The first half of the book explores the history of the autism diagnosis in the United States whilst the second part jumps to the present and explores the structure and function of current autism advocacy groups. Silverman's historical account focuses on the work of Leo Kanner, Bruno Bettleheim and Ivar Lovaas precisely because they were well-known public figures. These figures fed the public imagination about how children's development could fail and how it could be revived. Lovaas's behavioural therapies for autistic children were featured in a 1961 article in the Saturday Evening Post and later in a 1965 article in Life magazine entitled ‘Screams, Slaps and Love’. In 1967, when Bettleheim published The Empty Fortress: Infantile Autism and the Birth of the Self, it quickly became a bestseller and