Exiting Nirvana Read online

  Passages in chapter 3 from Eric Courchesne et al., “Recent Advances in Autism,” reprinted from H. Naruse and E. M. Ornitz, eds., Neurobiology and Infantile Autism, Elsevier Science Publications, 1992. Reprinted by permission of Elsevier Science.

  Passages in chapters 5 and 6 from Lola Bogyo and Ronald Ellis, “Elly: A Study in Contrasts,” reprinted from L. K. Obler and D. Fein, eds., The Exceptional Brain (Guilford Press, 1988). Reprinted by permission of the publisher.

  Passages in chapter 5 from David Park and Philip Youderian, “Light and Number: Ordering Principles in the World of an Autistic Child,” reprinted by permission from Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia, vol. 4, no. 4 (1974).

  Passage in Appendix I reprinted with permission from Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition. Copyright 1994 American Psychiatric Association.

  * Hypersensitivities, of course, are characteristic of autism. But these tend to be straightforwardly physical — intolerance of certain sounds, for instance, or textures. Jessy is reasonably comfortable in the physical world; she seems indifferent to extremes of heat or cold, for all her interest in the Weather Channel. Her sensitivities are not of the body but of the mind.