The Siege: A Family's Journey Into the World of an Autistic Child

by Clara Claiborne Park

This classic work tells the tale of how a devoted mother accomplished miracles in fostering the intellectual, social and emotional development of her autistic daughter.

Genres: Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Psychology, Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Biography Memoir, Mental Health

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Clara Justine Claiborne graduated from Radcliffe College in 1944. She married physicist David Park in 1945, and they both attended the University of Michigan, where she earned a master's degree in 1949, majoring in English literature. They moved to Massachusetts in 1951, where Park taught at Berkshire Community College and then at Williams College, where she was on the faculty from 1975 to 1994.

She and her husband had four children, of whom one, the artist Jessica Park, was autistic. Her book 'The Siege', about Jessica's first eight years, was the first major challenge to the idea that autism was caused by the parents. The followup 'Exiting Nirvana' continued the story of Jessica and her family.

Reviews

[Martha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was depressing reading, as it is set back in the days when autism was considered a psychosis. The family struggles to find solutions, searches desperately for professional help, and has to fend off the blame that used to be attached to being the parent of an autistic child.

[Marieke · Rating 4 out of 5]

a must-read for anyone interested in early autism history

[Tom Houlton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clara's recount of her daughter's young life with autism is, overall, vivid and insightful. At times, it is understandably outdated and it is a shame that the acceptance of the condition being autism is something she never fully recognises.

Clara went to deep, loving efforts to understand her daughter and help her thrive in life, which she seems to have done. I think it's a shame that there is so much focus on what her daughter could not achieve, as opposed to what she did accomplish. I would like to have read more about her teenage years and how some key social developments came to pass.

At the end, Clara recognises how much Jesse has taught her and how 'love' is the true door to growth, which is very heart-warming.
This is a must read for anyone interested in autism, but it is long and very analytical.

[Bobbie Darbyshire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Subtitled A family’s journey into the world of an autistic child. “We would use every stratagem we could invent to assail her fortress, to beguile, entice, seduce her into the human condition.” Very slowly, feeling their way, they make amazing progress.
I should keep a note of what or who prompts me to buy books, because they go to the end of my TBR queue and, by the time they come up, I’ve forgotten the prompt. But whatever it was in this case, I’m really glad to have read it. I was employed one uni vacation in a children’s home for under 5s, whose little inmates broke my heart in a wide variety of ways, mostly through their neediness of the love they were variously lacking. When I got cuddly with one of them, I was called to the office, where I was told to stop cuddling as I would be gone in a few weeks. Under stern surveillance I stopped, causing more distress, I believe, than a loving goodbye would eventually have done. One child, a pretty, waiflike little blonde girl, sat apart every day on the grass, in her own world, rocking, showing no need of anything or anyone. No one ever engaged with her or spoke to her and I was told not to bother. Wrong. Wrong, Wrong.

[MomofTeen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautifully written book by a mother who devoted herself to the education - both academic and emotional - of her autistic daughter. Ms Park is a gifted writer and teacher whose patience must have been stretched to its outer limits. Rather than institutionalize her child, she fought for her, became her champion, and gave her a voice. The memoir is heavy reading for today’s instant gratification sorts, but well worth the time.

I discovered Jessy Park’s story through Oliver Sacks’ writing. She is an artistic savant.

[Carlene Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

I expected this to feel dated but it highly relevant. Well written, I am sure helpful to parents with autistic children and I especially liked the insight afforded by comparing American and British systems at the time.

[Aleksei Uljassov · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is filled with mother's love for her child.
The author describes how it is to care for an autistic child first hand, the joy, the sad, the hard parts are all there.

[Twiggy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting to see how perceptions of autism and child rearing have changed over time.

[Stephanie Patterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, the story of one family’s attempt to break through what seems to them to be their child’s utter indifference to them, is remarkable both for the mother’s story of her own efforts to engage her child and for her account of her attempts to get help from a community of professionals who seem as baffled as she is by her child’s behavior.
Her progress with her daughter is very slow.. Elly ( the pseudonym for Jessica Park) makes progress at her own pace and she notices and responds to what interests her. She is very attentive to some details ( and has become a remarkable artist) but she is rarely attentive to people. I sometimes got impatient with the narrative but I think that was more indicative of my need for Elly to make more rapid and remarkable progress than it was of any flaw in the prose.
Clara Claiborne Park raised Elly during the era when the supposed etiology of autism was “the refrigerator mother,” a parent who did not want her child and whose demeanor conveyed this to the developing infant. (See Bruno Bettleheim’s “Joey the Mechanical Boy” for the full explanation of this most damaging of theories). Her discomfort at being judged for unnamed flaws is poignantly expressed: “Comfortable, well-educated members of the upper middle class ordinarily escape the experience of depersonalization, of utter helplessness in institutional hands, of reduction to the status of children to whom situations are mediated, not explained. Like so much that hurts, the experience is deeply educational. . We know now in our skins that the most threatening of all attacks is the attack on the sense of personal worth, that the harshest of all deprivations is the deprivation of respect. We know now, I think, how the slum mother feels as the welfare worker comes round the corner. It takes, one would think, so little knowledge of psychology to put oneself in another person's place.”
Attitudes toward autism and its etiology have changed dramatically, but this memoir, originally written in the 1960s is still well worth reading

[Lisa Feld · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm reminded of the adage that writers write the book that they desperately want to read but cannot find. Clara Park's daughter Jessy (called Elly in the book) was diagnosed autistic at a time when experts used the term interchangeably with psychosis and schizophrenia, and blamed over-educated mothers for their children's condition. Unable to find professional help or support, Park used trial and error as well as ideas gleaned from the autobiography of Annie Sullivan (who reached another unreachable child, Helen Keller) to gradually teach her daughter verbal, motor, and social skills and bring her into the larger world.

While the book is compelling, it's not written as a confessional tearjerker but as a guide for other families at a time when there were no such books or support groups. Park describes what worked, what didn't, some guesses as to the "whys" of both, and details of the family's journey like the realization that alongside her dedication to Jessy, Park needed outside interests to stay sane and avoid being swallowed up by her daughter's needs.

It's an engaging read on its own, and for writers like me, it offers a great window into the daily struggles of raising an autistic child.

[Joanne Clarke Gunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Books about autism or brain abnormalities of any stripe fascinate me. This is one of the best of the many books I have read about autism. Originally published in 1967, "The Siege" is credited as one of the first books to allay the blame that parents, especially mothers, were made to feel at having caused their child's autism through their cold detachment. The author's detailed reporting of the characteristics and often strange (and humorous) behavior of an autistic child and the rather limited methods available for reaching and helping them haven't changed much, although there are many more programs and professionals dedicated to the treatment of autistic children now. It takes a lot of repetitive work to even begin to reach an autistic child and the results vary greatly from child to child. But it is the constant and often quite imaginative work of Clara Claiborne Park detailed in this book that results in the great progress that her daughter makes in learning to talk, count, read, and the most difficult of all for autistic children, relate to other humans. I highly recommend this book.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the book that sustained me through the first few years of raising my son with autism. The bibliography pointed a way for me and guided me through those early days, when autism was still a low incidence disability, 1986. I was later lucky enough to meet Clara and Jessy and thank her for being, unknowingly, my mentor and salvation in the darkest days of my life. Exiting Nirvana, came at a time that my son was preparing to transition to adult services and again Clara pointed a way, shortly before her death I was able to talk by phone with her and while a stroke had impaired her ability to converse easily her mind remained sharp. A true pioneer, a must read for anyone interested in autism.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book, as I did the successor (Exiting Nirvana, written 30 years later). Autism is a fascinating disorder, and this pair of books gives tremendous insight into how autism affects an individual and the surrounding family. At the time (as with now) there was very little known about autism so it is really amazing to learn what the author and her family did instinctively to draw Elly out, as well as how difficult it was to find the right support from the medical/psychiatric fields. Highly, highly recommend this.

[Łukasz Boryczko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Przepiękna podróż w zamknięty świat autystycznego dziecka. Ze szczególną dbałością ukazana walka matki w przełamywaniu barier i dążeniu do wyłomu w murach szczelnie zamkniętej "umysłowej cytadeli". Świadectwo siły miłosci, odwagi i cierpliwości w próbach osiągnięcia "normalnbości" pomimo ówczesnych kowenansów psychiatrii. Polecam:)

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the greatest books I've read on Autistic Spectrum Disorder, written by a mother of an autistic child. I read it because of my involvement with the elementary special education program, but certainly any parent with a child suffering this disorder would identify with and learn from it.

[Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite personal account of what it is like to live with autism. Written from the parent's perspective, it shows great insight and appreciation to what the child is experiencing. Perfect for parents and professionals who work with children on the autism spectrum.

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rather dated now, from the days when it was assumed that autism was psychological rather than neurological, but in the 1960s this must have been a revolutionary look at how to increase communication with an autistic child from a parent's point of view, and it's still very touching.

[Luigi · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent insight for someone who hasn't experienced autism first hand.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read and, mostly, skimmed this book. Interesting--I just didn't want to spend a lot of time on it.

[Carolina Day · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing mother