Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

On March 19, Anna Stubblefield pleaded guilty in a very high profile criminal case. I don't know off hand whether I have written about it in this blog before. [Later Insertion. I have not specifically mentioned Stubblefield here -- I have discussed an underlying controversy ....] Stubblefield has pleaded guilty to aggravated criminal sexual contact with a man known to the public only as DJ, a man with severe cerebral palsy. She has claimed that she has been communicating with DJ through "facilitated communication" (FC) and until agreeing to this guilty plea she had taken the view that they had a consensual romantic relationship, consent conveyed through the FC. [Later insertion. The validity or otherwise of FC is the underlying controversy mentioned in the first use of brackets above. Nearly two years ago I posted here my review of the Donvan/Zucker book about autism. I briefly discussed FC in that context. Autism was not part of DJ's condition.] Senten...

In a Different Key:  The Story of Autism By John Donvan and Caren Zucker Crown Publishers, New York, NY, 2016. 670 pages, $30. Reviewed by Christopher C. Faille Autism is part of who I am. Or, at least, I believe so. There’s never been anything so formal as a diagnosis, but people who love me, including some with credentials as health care providers, have told me, usually with some effort at softening the presumed blow, that I am “on the spectrum.” I have long since given up any impulse to argue the point. I don’t believe I’ve ever owned the term “autism” in public before, so I will use this book review, then, as a coming-out moment. The readers of The Federal Lawyer know something of me, from my numerous book reviews in the magazine. You have had plenty of opportunities to judge both my analytical abilities and the sort of stylistic quirks that enter into my prose style. That doesn’t make you diagnostic authorities, but it does mean that you are an appropriate community ...