Newsgroups: sci.psychology.psychotherapy
In article <5ejmg1$bup$1@mark.ucdavis.edu> John M Price, PhD <szjprice@boris.ucdavis.edu> wrote: >Theo Foekema (decirkel@rotan.eur.nl) wrote: >: Dear colleages, >: >: I'm very interested in psychotherapy for autistic people. In the >: Netherlands we are trying out various types and we would like to know if >: there is any experience with this kind of therapy. >: I'm very pleased to recieve any information or articles about the >: subject. > >I'd like to see that myself. This is considered a neurological disorder, >and likey not to susceptible to psychotherapy. The latter, though, may be >very helpful in assisting the higher functioning autists in adjusting to >the real world. I did some of that with schizophrenics transitioning to >the community from the mental hospital. Not very succesful, in the long >run, as in fact there are relapses into psychosis that just can't be >helped. Worth the effort for the years that the remission is in effect.There's a very interesting book out now called Thinking in Pictures by an autistic woman named Temple Grandin (with a forward by Oliver Sacks). I've been meaning for some time to write a review of it to post here (and on my web page), but just haven't had the time.
I still don't have the time now, but let me just say briefly that Temple Grandin is a functional autistic woman who can read and write and in fact was able to obtain a Ph.D. in animal science and is the author of a number of publications. (She has had people who give her considerable help in writing up her ideas, however, and it is not clear how much of this book represents her own words and how much of the writing comes from her editors.) Her specialty is working with large animals, especially cattle, and one of her main interests has been in designing livestock-handling facilities that will not spook cattle. One of her main advantages in doing this is her ability to essentially see the world in the same way that a cow does.
She comments that she was extremely fortunate to have people in her early life who were able to help her learn to cope with her autism and become functional in the real world despite it (although certainly she is still in many ways very different from most people).
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