Naming Adult Autism

Dr James McGrath is Senior Lecturer in Literature and Cultural Studies at Leeds Beckett University. His poems appear in various literary magazines. He has also published on popular music, particularly The Beatles and Joy Division

• Introduction/ 1. Outsider Science and Literary Exclusion: A Reply to Denials of Autistic Imagination: Childhood Autism and the Psychiatric Imagination/Autism and the Machine/ Computer Coding and/as Literature: Douglas Coupland’s Microserfs/ Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake: Autism and Literary Exclusion/ Inaccuracies in Baron-Cohen’s “Minds Wired for Science” Narrative/ Bias in the Adult Autism-Spectrum Quotient Test (2001)/ Re-membering Autistic Imagination: Asperger, Wing, and Harro L./ Silberman’s Neurotribes: Science, Science Fiction and Autism/ Autistic Responses to Atwood’s Oryx and Crake/ The SySTEMizing Focus and its Implications for Autistic Diversity/ 2. Metaphors and Mirrors: The Otherness of Adult Autism/ Picking Up The Mirror: Enfreaking Normalcy/ Infantilizing Adult Autism in Diagnostic Observations/ Autism and Disorder: Foucault, Confinement and Cultural Fear/ The Screen as Mirror: The Office (UK) and the Neurotypical Gaze/ Post-Curious: Adult Autism as Cultural Spectacle in Big Bang Theory and

James McGrath demonstrates how pejorative narrative, including diagnostic labels, has defined how society regards Autism. We learn how ‘experts’ have constructed Autism discourse with little reference to those experiencing it and how this leads to their lack of agency. This excellent book rephrases autism as an impairment to a lifelong identity, providing a deeper understanding of it.