Imaging autism

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An Outsiders Perspective
Lesli R. Clark

Posted on: 29 January 2003
A Tapestry Image of Autism: evoking complexity.
Vivian S Rambihar

Posted on: 08 July 2002
E. Torchio

Posted on: 25 June 2002

Posted on: (29 January 2003)

An Outsiders Perspective
Lesli R. Clark, Teacher/Parent
I'm actually sending this e-mail to inform the students/artists, how touched I was by their individual impressions of the world of autism. I am a parent of an autistic child as well an educator of these special children. There are not many who have captured the essence of the world in which the families of autistic children live. However, I must admit that these special students have come extremely close to doing just that...
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I'm actually sending this e-mail to inform the students/artists, how touched I was by their individual impressions of the world of autism. I am a parent of an autistic child as well an educator of these special children. There are not many who have captured the essence of the world in which the families of autistic children live. However, I must admit that these special students have come extremely close to doing just that! Bravo! Please don't allow the sensitivity that you have shown in your artwork, to be overshadowed by anyone. I only wish that the world produced more individuals such as yourselves. Maybe the lives of all special needs children and adults, would be better accepted in society. Thank you,for bringing this to me. I only wish that your exhibit could have been appreciated by many more! Sincerely, Lesli Clark
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Competing Interests: None declared.
Posted on: (8 July 2002)

A Tapestry Image of Autism: evoking complexity.
Vivian S Rambihar, cardiologist
Other Contributors:
Evocative images of autism were conjured up at an exhibition by medical students working with The Medical Humanities Art Program at the University of Manitoba (1).
Another powerful image of autism was evoked by Blakemore-Brown using the metaphor of tapestry and the science of chaos and complexity to better understand the complexities involved (2). A review of this new book, available at http://www.ont-autism.uog...
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Evocative images of autism were conjured up at an exhibition by medical students working with The Medical Humanities Art Program at the University of Manitoba (1).
Another powerful image of autism was evoked by Blakemore-Brown using the metaphor of tapestry and the science of chaos and complexity to better understand the complexities involved (2). A review of this new book, available at http://www.ont-autism.uoguelph.ca/rev-020403.html describes the author’s use of "extended metaphors of weaving and tapestry…to illustrate the complexity and interweave of genetic potential and environmental triggers, in a story of how people themselves develop," drawing from the science and images of chaos and complexity theory. The author describes each person as a unique tapestry woven from complex variables and influences, leading to the concept of reweaving a tangled tapestry in pursuing interventions.
Making chaos and complexity the algorithm or rules for weaving together the strands of genes and environment retains the dynamics or ever -changing nature of these interactions. Since in complex systems, little changes may matter and change everything, we can imagine the tapestry on a TV screen, continuously being rewoven by diverse influences following the rules of chaos and complexity, an entirely new tapestry forever emerging and evolving.
In the photographic montage “Reflections” in the same exhibition on autism (1), Beverley Lee comments that “because autism can be so variable in each child, things perceived by one can be seen quite differently by another. Although all these images may look like a chaotic collage, they are still in a repetitive order.” Lee thus also evokes an image from chaos and complexity science, the emergence of order from order and chaos intertwined, to help us to better understand autism.
Images of complexity were also evoked in response to Dr David Suzuki’s article on expanding the debate on health care (3) suggesting that the ecosystem metaphor he uses so well to describe health could be expanded even further using chaos and complexity, to all of medicine, health and everything else.
This use of a tapestry image for autism is an exciting example of the novel approach interweaving art and science in the pursuit of health, where chaos and complexity, a new art, science and philosophy of medicine, health and everything else (6) is inextricably interwoven into the tapestry of life (4,5).
1. Imaging Autism. The Left Atrium. CMAJ 2002; 166(9): 1192-3.
2. Blakemore-Brown L, Reweaving the Autistic Tapestry: Autism, Asperger Syndrome and ADHD. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. 2002.
3. Suzuki D. Expanding the health care debate. CMAJ 2002;166(13):1678-9.
4. Rambihar VS. CHAOS 2000 from Cos to Cosmos: Making a new medicine. Toronto: Vashna; 1996, 2000.
5. Sardar Z, Abrams I. Introducing Chaos. Cambridge: Icon Books; 1999.
6. Rambihar VS, Baum M. A new mathematical (chaos and complexity) theory of medicine, health and disease: refiguring medical thought, in A new chaos based medicine beyond 2000: the response to evidence. Toronto. Vashna. 2000. Available at: http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:rex5VYkX0F4C:www.complexityprimarycare.org/Rambihar.PDF+vs+rambihar+&hl=en&ie=UTF -8
Vivian S Rambihar, Cardiologist, Toronto. Sherryn Rambihar, Medical Student, UWO, London Ontario.
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Competing Interests: None declared.
Posted on: (25 June 2002)
E. Torchio, writer/producer
Other Contributors:
If I'm understanding the description of this project correctly, the only persons consulted were the parents of autistic children.
Why?
There are a great many autistic adults who are capable of succinctly expressing their experience from childhood to the present moment. We do not all start out nonverbal, and many of us who do overcome this to become voluble speakers capable of expressing our firsthan...
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If I'm understanding the description of this project correctly, the only persons consulted were the parents of autistic children.
Why?
There are a great many autistic adults who are capable of succinctly expressing their experience from childhood to the present moment. We do not all start out nonverbal, and many of us who do overcome this to become voluble speakers capable of expressing our firsthand knowledge and experience. Many of us are successful professionals and have careers. Some of us are married and have autistic children of our own.
Temple Grandin, Stephen Shore, Donna Williams, and Jean Paul Bovee immediately come to mind. Certainly there are many others.
If the medical establishment is ever to grasp the complexities of the experience of autism in any coherent context, "inside" accounts by such persons deserve a great deal more attention than the "outside" accounts of their parents and caretakers.
E. Torchio [Editor's note, July 2: I ask the author of this letter to contact pubs@cma.ca. We require updated correspondance information.]
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Competing Interests: None declared.