Autisms by Darian Leader

Autisms by Darian Leader

AN ESSENTIAL, URGENT GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING AUTISM AND THE AUTISTIC SPECTRUM FROM THE LEADING PSYCHOANALYST IN HIS FIELD

Strikingly clear, humane and helpful, this is an essential book for anyone seeking to understand autism and the autistic spectrum. Drawing on many years of clinical experience and research, as well as the testimonies of autistic people, it is an up-to-the minute account of the many indicative features of autism and how they have been assessed and treated over almost a century.

As rates of autism diagnosis escalate in almost all high-income countries, researchers today mostly agree that there is no single cause or even single clinical picture of autism. Rather than a neat and well-defined entity, autism is described as a spectrum or constellation of traits, varying in intensity, distribution and severity, with practically everyone in the general population showing at least some autistic trait or feature.

At the same time, there has been a radical split between the ways in which autism is perceived. For many, it is a disorder, a pathology based on a deficit, whereas for others it is an identity, a natural variation in human cognitive and behavioural diversity.

For anyone facing the special challenges of autism, it can be hard to find clarity amid such complexity and contradiction, making Darian Leader’s illuminating guide to the field of autism research and treatment particularly welcome.

‘A compelling and essential book. We grow as we read it’ Susie Orbach

'One of our most important contemporary thinkers' Guardian

Darian Leader is a psychoanalyst practising in London and a member of the Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research and of The College of Psychoanalysts-UK. His books include The New Black: Mourning, Melancholia and Depression, Strictly Biplolar, What is Madness? , and Why Cant We Sleep?

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781405992374
ISBN 10	1405992379
Title	Autisms
Author	Leader Darian
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Penguin
Year published	2026-09-03
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.