Facial expressions When I started visiting my brother more regularly, I tried to think of what I could do to help. Mike is low functioning, autistic and nonverbal, so he cannot contribute much to his own care. The only evidence of how he feels is through his behavior. I had been thinking about making a […]
Me as younger, younger brother Those of you who follow my blog are aware that my older brother Michael is autistic, low functioning (formerly known as retarded) and has never spoken. I don’t know how I came up with the notion that I needed him to tell me who he was. Maybe since I was […]
I’m talking about artistic process, here. Maybe this is a mis-characterization of my ‘brother project’, but I don’t really think so. In art, like science, the artist/scientist is trying to understand something. I am trying to understand my autistic brother. Actions speak louder than words, but words [1] are necessary My mother always told me that […]
Diagnosis of autism I discussed the history of autism diagnosis a previous post. As the science matured, the psychogenic origin (blame for autism on the ‘refrigerator mother’) was replaced by consideration of the premise that autism could arise from biological origins. Both versions of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) use behavior as […]
There is a huge gulf between the unrecognizable pictures of my brother in Mike Portrait to his portrait in ‘I Really Have to Dig Out My Journals’. Michael is crying in the latter post. This is such a human thing to do. I really shocked me at the time. I was rummaging through my Project […]
