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'Medicine has limits. Despite tremendous technological advances several diseases remain without a clear cause or cure, autism among them. Unfortunately, where medicine fails, charlatanism and quackery abounds, often with damaging results. In his book, Defeating Autism, Michael Fitzpatrick, a physician and himself the father of an autistic son, explores the therapies that have been proffered for autistic children with clarity and compassion. This is a must read for any parent trying to wade through the Arabian bazaar of autism therapies.' - Paul A. Offit, M.D., Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, USA
'With eloquent and persuasive writing, Fitzpatrick uncovers the political agendas that lie behind current fears of an autism crisis, and challenges the epidemic of unproven and expensive treatments. He shows us that our children are indeed being helped tremendously, not by unscientific autism treatments that falsely promise cure or recovery, but by educators, scientists, evidence-based therapies, and new understandings of what it means to be human, and different, in the twenty first century. If my child were diagnosed with autism today, I would turn to Dr Michael Fitzpatrick for guidance.' - Roy Richard Grinker, Professor of Anthropology at George Washington University, USA and author of Unstrange Minds
‘Fitzpatrick has begun a much-needed conversation… A disembodied attitude of incredulity toward what is known and true can lead parents and scientists to dark places. Fitzpatrick’s book is a superb effort to reverse these negative trends.’ – Contemporary Psychology
Review
'Medicine has limits. Despite tremendous technological advances several diseases remain without a clear cause or cure, autism among them. Unfortunately, where medicine fails, charlatanism and quackery abounds, often with damaging results. In his book, Defeating Autism, Michael Fitzpatrick, a physician and himself the father of an autistic son, explores the therapies that have been proffered for autistic children with clarity and compassion. This is a must read for any parent trying to wade through the Arabian bazaar of autism therapies.' - Paul A. Offit, M.D., Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, USA 'With eloquent and persuasive writing, Fitzpatrick uncovers the political agendas that lie behind current fears of an autism crisis, and challenges the epidemic of unproven and expensive treatments. He shows us that our children are indeed being helped tremendously, not by unscientific autism treatments that falsely promise cure or recovery, but by educators, scientists, evidence-based therapies, and new understandings of what it means to be human, and different, in the twenty first century. If my child were diagnosed with autism today, I would turn to Dr Michael Fitzpatrick for guidance.' - Roy Richard Grinker, Professor of Anthropology at George Washington University, USA and author of Unstrange Minds 'Fitzpatrick has begun a much-needed conversation! A disembodied attitude of incredulity toward what is known and true can lead parents and scientists to dark places. Fitzpatrick's book is a superb effort to reverse these negative trends.' -- Contemporary Psychology
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Mike Fitzpatrick is a doctor. He has an autistic child. So I welcome a book in which he uses his medical training and experience to evaluate various explanations of the causes of autism and the unorthodox therapies and treatments that promise to cure or recover a child from autism. He does us a valuable service in exposing the lack of scientific and medical evidence for many of these nostrums. Some are worse than useless and have the capacity to cause harm. But the most harmful effect of the damaging delusion that it is possible to defeat autism is the corrosive effect it has on parents.
We used to be blamed for causing our child's autism. Now we stand condemned if we do not pursue every quack cure on offer. I well remember the slogan on an early internet forum, "whatever works for your child." The implicit message was that you had to try everything until you found your personal cure and if nothing worked you were not trying hard enough.
I wrote on a forum that my son would have been a prime candidate for biomedical treatment as a toddler - lack of speech, ear infections, sleep problems, tantrums etc - except that we did not have a diagnosis then. So we followed orthodox interventions like speech and language therapy and ignored special diets and mega doses of vitamins. Today my son would be considered recovered by the standards of the biomedical movement. I went on to note that my son's biggest problem at school was not his autism but the bullying he got from normal kids. One parent suggested that if I had tried biomedical treatments he might not have been a target for bullies!
The greatest achievement in this book is not the debunking of bad science and quack treatments, though Mike does that well enough. What I really liked was his sympathetic approach to parents who are taken in by the delusion. He seeks to understand the appeal of the whole edifice of so called complementary medicine and locate it within a social context. This attempt to understand instead of merely exposing the dangerous delusions that surround autism is what marks this book out as essential reading for anyone concerned with autism today.
We used to be blamed for causing our child's autism. Now we stand condemned if we do not pursue every quack cure on offer. I well remember the slogan on an early internet forum, "whatever works for your child." The implicit message was that you had to try everything until you found your personal cure and if nothing worked you were not trying hard enough.
I wrote on a forum that my son would have been a prime candidate for biomedical treatment as a toddler - lack of speech, ear infections, sleep problems, tantrums etc - except that we did not have a diagnosis then. So we followed orthodox interventions like speech and language therapy and ignored special diets and mega doses of vitamins. Today my son would be considered recovered by the standards of the biomedical movement. I went on to note that my son's biggest problem at school was not his autism but the bullying he got from normal kids. One parent suggested that if I had tried biomedical treatments he might not have been a target for bullies!
The greatest achievement in this book is not the debunking of bad science and quack treatments, though Mike does that well enough. What I really liked was his sympathetic approach to parents who are taken in by the delusion. He seeks to understand the appeal of the whole edifice of so called complementary medicine and locate it within a social context. This attempt to understand instead of merely exposing the dangerous delusions that surround autism is what marks this book out as essential reading for anyone concerned with autism today.
22 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Michael Fitzpatrick is a doctor. He has a son with an autism diagnosis. Perhaps more than anyone he would want to use the knowledge of his profession to find a cure. However when he looked at the literature which purported to support the various "cures" on offer, in his own words: "To say I was disappointed would be an understatement". Dr Fitzpatrick is a welcome dose of reality in a confusing world of promises. His premise is simply to show people - in particular parents of children with autism - how to approach supposed cures with a critical eye, and in fact give you sufficient evidence to dismiss virtually every "miracle cure" currently on the market as at best nothing more than false hope and at worst potentially deadly. I am also a parent of a child with autism, and believe me if I honestly thought that any of these supposed cures worked, I would be doing them. However the evidence simply doesn't support it, and many of the "treatments" are actually nothing more than a form of hit and miss medical experimentation on your child. If you are a parent of a child with autism, before you start to pay hundreds/thousands to some well-spoken doctor at a private clinic who "understands" you better than your GP, please consider spending the price of this book first.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I am also a GP with personal experience of some of the challenges in bringing up autistic children. I have over the last 3 years collected a library of books on autism.
I can now stop. My only wish was that I had bought this book 3 years ago.
If you only ever wanted to read one book on autism this is the one I would recommend.
My only wish was that Dr Fitzpatrick was blonde with silicone breasts and had a previous realtionship with Jim Carrey, then he may have got his slot on Oprah and a much wider readership of this excellent book !!
I can now stop. My only wish was that I had bought this book 3 years ago.
If you only ever wanted to read one book on autism this is the one I would recommend.
My only wish was that Dr Fitzpatrick was blonde with silicone breasts and had a previous realtionship with Jim Carrey, then he may have got his slot on Oprah and a much wider readership of this excellent book !!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Deeply suspect
Fitzpatrick's involvement in the pharmaceutical company funded organization 'sense about science' makes any of his claims deeply suspect. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Reader
Medical propaganda
Allopaths/vaccinators such as Dr Fitzpatrick can't accept some cases of autism have been cured as it would open up a hug Pandora's box that would expose the fact most autism is... Read more
Published 15 months ago by whale.to
BIG pharma shills...
I find some of these positive reviews for this thoroughly discredited biostitute extremely suspicious... anyone else? Read more
Published on 29 Mar 2010 by mark cooper
Stibbard Dweller
A fascinating account of the fringe medicine industry duping the very worried carers of children with autism. Read more
Published on 17 Nov 2009 by Dr. Jb Nichols
Ignore the one star reviews - this is a must read!
I'd put this is the same category as "Defeating Autism: A Damaging Delusion" by Paul Offit (which I intend to read next) as being a sober, thoughtful and accurate account of the... Read more
Published on 23 Mar 2009 by Mr. John L. Dixon
An excellent book on autism
Dr Michael Fitzpatrick gives a moving account about how raising a child with autism can be made infinitely harder - emotionally, financially and practically - by the charlatanic... Read more
Published on 7 Feb 2009 by H. Guldberg
Not A Delusion
Defeating Autism is not a delusion, but a reality for many children and adults on the spectrum. My own son is being treated naturally by having a gluten and dairy free diet which... Read more
Published on 2 Jan 2009 by louise
A terrible read for those who are optimistic and helping there child
This is awful, a damming and depressing read for anyone looking to help there child with autism. There are over 1:100 that are damaged by autism, this is not a 'natural'... Read more
Published on 1 Jan 2009 by mark A
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