A Passion to Believe: Autism and the Facilitated Communication Phenomenon

by Diane Twachtman-Cullen

"While the main purpose of this book is to report on my research, ultimately this book is about more than facilitated communication. It is about what I have come to call the FC culture--that... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813390982
• ISBN13: 9780813390987
• Release Date: August 1997
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Devastating and brilliant

Twachtman-Cullen's meticulously researched and impeccably objective case studies of "facilitated communication" go beyond demonstrating the messages produced to be the handiwork of the "facilitators" themselves. With great sensitivity and respect for the people with autism involved - indeed, greater sensitivity and respect than is shown by the "facilitators", despite their rhetoric about trust - she documents the way in which the methods and practices of the "facilitators", such as ignoring clear verbal and non-verbal signals which might conflict with the facilitated "messages", in fact frustrate and abuse their clients, producing aggression, anxiety, attempts to escape, and even self-injurious behaviour. This book should be read and heeded by everyone connected with the autism field, not only for its dazzling expose of FC, but also for its insight into the way in which a fanatically-defended ideology can end up riding rough-shod over the basic human rights of the people it purports to be helping. People with autism deserve better than being used as human Ouija boards.