Science and Inquiry discussion

For the November 2016 group read, we had a tie: Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA and More Tell Us About Crime and NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity. You can read either or both books, as you wish.

If you read NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity, please use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews, at any time.

I'm hoping to find the time to read this one with the group this month.

Starting this tonight! Looks interesting.

This is the first time I have ever read about Hitler's secret order authorizing the creation of Aktion T-4 which told hospitals, clinics and institutions of long-term care to kill patients with inherited diseases and chronic disabilities.

"People with disabilities were to be referred to as refractory therapy cases. Laws promoting euthanasia were dubbed negative population policies. The act of killing was called delivering final medical assistance. Clinics for disabled children were christened ....- ""specialist children's wards.""

Austrian and Germans brought in their disabled children asking the doctors to kill them. Physicians who made the determination of euthanasia were required by the Reich Committee to fill out questionnaires and final decision forms in triplicate.

O_O

aPriL does feral sometimes wrote: "This is the first time I have ever read about Hitler's secret order authorizing the creation of Aktion T-4 which told hospitals, clinics and institutions of long-term care to kill patients with inh..."

Reading that part was so disturbing. The thing that made it even more atrocious was the fact that they didn't even do it painlessly.

For some reason, humans have this weird notion that it's better to let people die "naturally," at least more so than killing directly. The stories about letting kids die of pneumonia and even starving them were just horrible.

I am still feeling absolutely horrified by the experimentation, especially by Lovaas, which uses torture on children and teens to 'cure' autism and homosexuality and transsexuality.

Covering up the obscenity of it by the use of the benign sounding 'aversion therapy' reminds me of the power of language and words to frame arguments and minimize/maximize understanding and shape thinking.

There is a book We Have Always Lived in the Castle which I seen picked again and again for GR fiction bookclubs. Why I bring it up here is that it is constructed in such a way many readers cannot wrap their heads around what the narrators actually are - (view spoiler)[murderous psychopaths - (hide spoiler)]even after finishing the book and all secrets are revealed. I didn't realize it until I started to think about the characters' behavior, describing it in my head in my own words. It helped I actually have known such people, too. Until then, I accepted for the majority of the book the frame in which the author had created for me to see the characters - their first person narratives describing their sufferings. I accepted their viewpoint as I would have accepted any normal victim's description of abuse.

When I brought out the fact these characters were not bullied mentally-disabled victims(view spoiler)[, but cold-blooded killers, (hide spoiler)]the penny suddenly drops for most readers only after reading my reveal. It is both amusing and horrifying, as it clearly shows how language, whether written or spoken, can completely shape sympathies or hatreds by framing by words. Needless to say, the author did it on purpose.

If you know the book, the spoilers are ok to read. But if you don't know the book yet, don't read the spoilers if you intend to read it some day.

; )

Even though I feel warm and fuzzy towards children, it strikes me that the resources necessary for autistic spectrum kids is enormous. I worked as a secretary for a public high school, so my view point was frequently from the ground, not the more rarified air of the professional psychiatrists or teachers. I handled the bills and appointments.

As public schools in America are required to accept all kids no matter their background or learning disabilities, I saw resource-strapped school districts attempt to meet federal requirements while not having any money to do so. What usually happens being between rocks and hard places is a concentration on window dressing. On paper everything looks appropriate, but on the ground where I was, a kid needed an involved parent to get services that were more than skin deep. On top of that, autism is a spectrum - meaning constant individual assessments and individually-designed programs are needed for best results.

I am sure autistic kids do much better with appropriate schools and teachers and psychologists. but the author occasionally mentions many of these kids who grow up and become adults demonstrate a need for constant lifelong care.

There are also many more types of disabled kids with other issues and need. This book is a terrific history and exposes both the progressive nature of scientific discovery - two steps forward, one step back and sideways - but given how autism is so disabling in the first 12 years or so, even for the high-functioning who grow into independence, and given how many other disabled kids and adults are out there, it seems to me there aren't enough resources in the world.

I often see the warm and fuzzy emotional parent testimonials that they are so happy they decided to have a disabled kid instead of opting for abortion, as well as the testimonials of professional adults who state how wonderful their job is getting these kids to be optimal. As someone who met a lot of these kids and their parents, and as I saw the difficulties, I think realistically, we should be concentrating more on genetic research and gene therapies and building a lot of abortion clinics. For every kid that gets appropriate care, you have many more that aren't cared for appropriately because of poor resource availability. For every parent who says they love their kid and really do, there are many more who say it too, but then act like they have a hated pet they plan to dump into a weedy lot and drive off.

The author mentions that every person in the book involved in 'cures' and care was inundated with desperate parents begging for help. Obviously there are more kids not being helped at all then there were kids being helped. What happened to them? Parents die. Kids grow into adults. Even the kids who were helped, what happened to most of the ones who grew up into disabled dependent adults with parents dead and gone?

P.S. This book is mistitled I think. It is a history of society developing a descriptive outline of autism, biographies of likely autistic-spectrum scientists, and a history of the craziness and struggles to find a cure (none available to date).

My review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...