Martin Kessler wrote:

> Look at the outrage Dennis Leary got for his book on the subject of
> Autism - and the outrage was from an out of context
> misrepresentation of what Leary had written. Szasz's books have been
> similarly misinterpreted

Being over here in Europe I had never heard of Leary (Denis, not
Dennis), but I looked him up through Google. He strikes me as offensive,
obnoxious, and vulgar. Parents of autistic children are perfectly
justified to be outraged. The "out of context" excuse is classic and
cliché. I cannot imagine any context in which such remarks would be
admissible.

According to Wikipedia: "Leary ... had been talking about the trend of
overdiagnosis of Autism..."* How would Leary know which cases are
legitimately diagnosed and which are "over"? His remarks contribute
nothing to the discussion nor can I detect anything humorous in them.
They were clearly intended to offend, and offend they did. Who would buy
a book like that anyway?

The concept of "overdiagnosis" only legitimizes diagnosis. The real
controversy i.m.o. should be whether the subject of abilities and
disabilities belongs in the domain of medicine.

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Leary#Autism_remarks_controversy

Mira