From Michael Baron
Referring to the letter from Ken Aitken
(10 March, p 56), I have a heretical
and thus unsubstantiated belief that the alleged increase in reported cases of
autism arises from two factors.
First, as mentioned in New Scientist, there’s the ever-broader definition of
what constitutes autism spectrum disorders. Secondly, there’s the autism
business, which drives this process.
This is an admittedly unkind summary of the worldwide growth of specialist
service providers, both charitable and commercial, research institutes and
centres with their core staffs in the necessary disciplines, and teachers,
administrators, fund-raisers, and so on. All of these have, sadly, a vested
career interest in autism. It may be that, to crudely paraphrase C. Northcote
Parkinson, autism expands with the number of people making a living from it.
Loweswater, Cumbria
