The cover features a still from the film Rain Man—the film through which many people first learned about autism, a syndrome that causes severe difficulties in social relationships, communication, and development from early childhood onward. This ANGSA publication announces itself clearly enough: these are not fictional tales but true stories of autistic children, accounts told largely by their mothers.
The stories are the heart of this publication. Seven are included now, but the aim is to gather many more—stories still hidden away. Reading several of these accounts, one encounters a palpable resentment from these parents, particularly the mothers, directed at the specialists in the field. For a long time, a prevailing belief held that parental coldness and rejection caused autism to emerge—a prejudice, really, since these children were loved and cared for as any other. The real harm comes later: the handicap can strain family relationships and communication. Yet this is precisely the moment when families need support, not blame.
Current understanding of the causes and treatments of autism is discussed briefly but clearly in an accompanying article. There are many therapies for autism because many different causes have been identified. According to the author, all of them lead to dysfunction of the central nervous system, with resulting behavioral abnormalities.
In Italy, it remains difficult to speak of newer therapies, since psychoanalysis continues to command great confidence—even though it proves ineffective when the cause is neurological, as evidence suggests is true in most cases.
Through its bulletin, of which this publication is a supplement, ANGSA attempts to build a network of information around families of autistic individuals by "making available to all the knowledge gained from every source."
— Cristina Tersigni, 1991
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