Chasing the Intact Mind: How the Severely Autistic and Intellectually Disabled Were Excluded from the Debates That Affect Them Most
Amy S.F. Lutz
Nov 2023 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Suzie Althens
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6 hr 44 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook
The concept of the intact mind, first described in a 2006 memoir, refers to the idea that inside every autistic child is an intelligent, typical child waiting to be liberated by the right diet, the right treatment intervention, the right combination of supports and accommodations. The sentiment itself is not new. Though the idea gives hope to parents devastated by a child's diagnosis, Amy Lutz argues that it has also contributed to widespread dismantling of services badly needed by severely disabled children and their families. In Chasing the Intact Mind, Lutz traces the history of the intact mind concept, explaining how it influences current policy and practice affecting those with autism. Lutz provides a historical analysis of the intact mind narrative and describes how the concept-originally unique to autism-has come to inform current debates at the heart of intellectual and developmental disability practice and policy in the United States. Lutz argues that focusing on the intact mind and marginalizing those with severe disability reproduces historic patterns of discrimination that yoked human worth to intelligence, and that it is only by making space for the impaired mind that we will be able to resolve these ongoing clashes-as well as even larger questions of personhood, dependency, and care.
About the author
Amy S. F. Lutz, PhD, is a historian of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She has written about severe autism for many platforms, including The Atlantic, Slate, Spectrum, and Psychology Today, as well as in books: We Walk: Life with Severe Autism and Each Day I Like It Better.
Suzie Althens records from her professional studio in Alaska, near the beautiful Matanuska Glacier. She narrates regularly for major publishers and specializes in audiobooks and e-learning.
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