Today autism has become highly visible. Once you begin to look forit, you realize it is everywhere. Why? We all know the answer orthink we do: there is an autism epidemic. And if it is an epidemic,then we know what must be done: lots of money must be thrown at it,detection centers must be established and explanations sought, sothat the number of new cases can be brought down and the epidemicbrought under control.But can it really be so simple? This major new book offers a verydifferent interpretation. The authors argue that the recent rise inautism should be understood an "aftershock" of the realearthquake, which was the deinstitutionalization of mentalretardation in the mid-1970s. This entailed a radicaltransformation not only of the institutional matrix for dealingwith developmental disorders of childhood, but also of the culturallens through which we view them. It opened up a space for viewingand treating childhood disorders as neither mental illness normental retardation, neither curable nor incurable, but somewherein-between. The authors show that where deinstitutionalization wentthe furthest, as in Scandinavia, UK and the "blue"states of the US, autism rates are also highest. Where it wasabsent or delayed, as in France, autism rates are low.Combining a historical narrative with international comparison,The Autism Matrix offers a fresh and powerful analysis of acondition that affects many parents and children today.

Introduction: The Autism Matrix.Why focus on therapies?Between mental illness and mental retardation.Chapter 1: The Puzzle of US States and InternationalVariation in Autism Rates.Diagnostic substitution.Supply-side and demand-side explanations for diagnosticsubstitution.Deinstitutionalization as key to explaining diagnosticsubstitution.Deinstitutionalization and the variation in autism rates.Chapter 2: The Feebleminded.Chapter 3: The Surveillance of Childhood.The unification of mental deficiency and mental hygiene underchild psychiatry.The role of the middle class family.The institutionalization of children as part of a comprehensivesurveillance system.Chapter 4: Deinstitutionalization.A new look at the deinstitutionalization of the retarded.The middle class family and the "valorization of retardedexistence".Chapter 5: "An existence as close to the normal as possible":Normalization.Normalization as therapeutic practice.Behavior modification and normalization.Chapter 6: Childhood Schizophrenia.Chapter 7: The Rise of the Therapies.Autism therapies in the 1950s and 1960s.Working on the child's brain.Inculcating habits and building skills.Fuzzifying the boundary between expert and layman.The space between fields.Chapter 8: Rimland and the Formation of NSAC.The problem of credibility.Schopler and the new economy of blame and worth.The implications of behavioral therapy.Conclusion.Chapter 9: The Atypical Children.The struggle over inclusion in the developmental disabilitiesact: Autism as analogous with mental retardation."Items of autistic behavior": Autism as concurrent with mentalretardation.Looping and the transformation of autism.Chapter 10: Asperger and Neurodiversity.The riddle of simultaneous discovery dissolved."Personality trait" vs. "psychotic process".Twins reunited.Loops of self-advocacy.Chapter11: The space of autism therapies and the making andremaking of the Spectrum.The Return of Rimland.The agonistic network.Fuzzifying the boundary between medicine and alternativemedicine.The space of autism therapies.Conclusion.