Autism is a complex phenomenon that is both individual and social. Showing both robust similarities and intriguing differences across cultural contexts, the autism spectrum raises innumerable questions about self, subjectivity, and society in a globalized world. Yet it is often misrepresented as a problem of broken bodies and disordered brains. So, in 2015, a group of interdisciplinary scholars gathered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for an intellectual experiment: a workshop that joined approaches from psychological anthropology to the South American tradition of Collective Health in order to consider autism within social, historical, and political settings. This book is the product of the ongoing conversation emerging from this event. It contains a series of comparative histories of autism policy in Italy, Brazil, and the United States; focuses on issues of voice, narrative, and representation in autism; and examines how the concept of autism shapes both individual lives and broader social and economic systems.

Featuring contributions from:

Michael Bakan
Benilton Bezerra
Pamela Block
M. Ariel Cascio
Jurandir Freire Costa
Bárbara Costa Andrada
Cassandra Evans
Elizabeth Fein
Clara Feldman
Roy Richard Grinker
Rossano Lima
Francisco Ortega
Dawn Prince-Hughes
Clarice Rios
Laura Sterponi
Thomas S. Weisner
Enrico Valtellina

Author Biography

Elizabeth Fein, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Psychology at Duquesne University, USA. Dr. Fein is a psychological anthropologist and licensed clinical psychologist who uses clinical ethnography to explore the intersections of culture and neurodevelopmental difference.

Clarice Rios, Ph.D., is Lecturer in Social Psychology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil. A psychological anthropologist, her current research explores the biopolitics of autism treatment within the Brazilian Unified Health System.

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