Ian Hacking HumansAliens 2009

Humans, Aliens & Autism
Author(s): Ian Hacking

Source: Daedalus, Vol. 138, No. 3, On Being Human (Summer, 2009), pp. 44-59
Published by: The MIT Press on behalf of American Academy of Arts & Sciences
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40543987
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Ian Hacking
Humans, aliens & autism
V^ontraries illumine what they are not. Oliver Sacks used a remark by Temple
Aliens, typically from outer space, are Grandin as the title of an essay about
almost by definition not human. Cur- autism, which became the title of his
rent portrayals of aliens may show more book Aw Anthropologist on Mars. Grandin,
about who we, the humans, are than an extraordinarily able autist, had said
they do about our extragalactic contrar- to Sacks, "Much of the time I feel like
ies. In portrayal by opposites there is an anthropologist on Mars."1 She felt
often a large dose of fear : for example, that interactions with other people were
that we may be all too like the aliens we often as difficult as interviewing Mar-
imagine. That leads to a paradox about tians. We move on from Mars to the ex-
autism and aliens. A persistent trope in tragalactic planet Aspergia, whose den-
some autism communities is that autis- izens have, unfortunately, been exiled
tic people are aliens, or, symmetrically, to Earth. They find that the inhabitants
that non-autistic people seem like aliens of Earth are aliens with whom they are
to autists. Some autists are attracted to forced to share a planet, while earthlings
the metaphor of the alien to describe in turn regard them as an alien species.
their own condition, or to say that they A nasty variant was used in a disturb-
find other people alien. Conversely, peo- ing autism awareness sound bite given
ple who are not autistic may in despera- wide distribution a couple of years ago
tion describe a severely autistic family by the advocacy organization CAN : Cure
member as alien. Autism Now. After a bit of ominous mu-
I wonder less what this phenome- sic, an intensely concerned young father
non shows about autism than what it intones, "Imagine that aliens were steal-
reveals about what it is to be human. It ing one in every two hundred children.
is to be expected that what contraries . . . That is what is happening in America
teach may not be something hidden, today. It is called autism." This is the an-
but something that has always been on cient myth of the changeling, the troll
the surface, almost too banal for us to child substituted in the dead of night for
notice. The revelation of the obvious an infant sleeping in his cot at home.
is not to be despised, for often the ob- I spoke of some autism communities
vious is blinding. toying with the metaphor of aliens. Au-
tism is a highly contested field, and there
© 2009 by Ian Hacking are many collectives with quite distinct
44 Dœdalus Summer 2009
agendas. I have to make clear from the long time.2 Seventeenth-century Europe Humans,
aliens &
start that, far from regarding people is especially rich in extraterrestrial uto- autism
with autism as aliens, I believe it to be pias, satires, scientific speculation, and
a very substantial human achievement moral reflection. Their inhabitants, be
that room is being created for autistic they evil or models of virtue, served as
people to live more comfortably among foils for human beings. In that respect
those who are not autistic. More and they are like the extragalactic creatures
more resources are available to serve of our day. They also served as a screen
such ends, and the social history of this question - a question that, like Freud's
ongoing progress is a promising tale of screen memories, hides what is really
hard work, a ray of light. being asked, namely, whether the indige-
This essay uses autism as a foil. What nous people of the Americas had souls.3
is it about autistic people that prompts Aliens in modern space adventures
the trope of the alien ? How are autists may talk and walk like us, but by defini-
different from other human beings, in tion they are not human. Hence human
such a way that a gifted autist can feel and alien are a tightly bonded pair. Aliens
that living among humans is like living can be better than us, as in moral fables
with Martians ? How can a gross but ef- such as ET. Most of the time they seem
fective sound bite create the sense that to be bent on destroying us. Monsters
aliens are snatching our children to are terrifying, but when push comes to
make them theirs ? I am of the school shove, they are closer to humans than
that thinks you can learn about X by aliens. At least they are on our side in
reflecting on what makes something Monsters vs. Aliens. In that recent movie,
not-X. What does the metaphor of the DreamWorks studios' first animated 3D
alien, insofar as it's connected to au- release, a bride is hit by a meteor on her
tism, show about humanity? wedding day, and, like Alice, grows to
fifty feet tall, less an inch. The U.S. Air
/'lien invasion is the lowest form Force kidnaps her to a secret concentra-
of intergalactic fiction, but the word tion camp for monsters, populated by
alien dates back to earliest English, and Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D. (humanoidbody,
has always had an association with oth- cockroach head), a 350-foot-long grub,
erness or foreignness. In America, the and their ilk. Earth is invaded by an
term "resident alien" is used for non- alien robot that sets about destroying
citizens allowed to live and work in the the United States, and the president re-
United States - a term so demeaning sponds by enlisting the monsters, who
that, colloquially, Americans tend to re- save America. Message : prefer terrestri-
fer to immigrants as having a green card, al monsters to extragalactic aliens. A
rather than as being resident aliens. Al- metaphor for an immigration policy?
though "resident alien" isn't incorrect Friend or foe, aliens are definitely not
in its denotation, I shall use alien with us. However, we seem to hold up aliens
its recent connotations, which seem to as mirrors to teach what is best or worst
have entered common usage in post- in us or in the human condition. Let us

World War II science fiction. Aliens now move past this doublet to a trian-
come from outer space - or, at least gle in which autism occupies the third
from somewhere other than Earth. point, and where the very word alien is
Humans and the "other-worldly" a second-order metaphor. At zero order,
have been available as a duet for a very an alien is a foreigner. At first order, an
Dœdalus Summer 2009 45
Ian
alien is a rational and sentient being Second, the Diagnostic and Statistical
Hacking
from outer space. At second order, Manual of Mental Disorders (dsm) clas-
on being
human the word is used as a metaphor for sifies autism as a mental disorder, a per-
the strangeness of autistic people. vasive developmental disorder, in fact.
But it is not a kind of madness, or a men-
JnLardly anyone had heard of autism tal disorder like bipolar disorder. In the
before Rain Man in 1988, some twenty highly contested world of autism, some
years ago. There is an astounding story argue that it is not a disorder at all, only
behind the word autism - from its intro- a difference from other people. Hence,
duction around 1910 as the name of like black pride or gay pride, there is
self-absorbed schizophrenic behavior, something akin to autism pride, which
through the name of a diagnosis for at present may be settling into a "neu-
children in 1943, and up to its radical rodiversity movement."
expansion in recent years - yet until Members of this loosely defined fac-
fairly recently, the word was unfamiliar. tion agree that autism is a neurological
Today every reader knows about autism, condition, but so, after all, is the state
if only because it is blazoned on every- of what they call neurotypicals. Most peo-
thing from billboards to bus stop shel- ple who will read this essay are, despite
ters. Many know someone diagnosed our oddities, neurotypicals. It is also
on the autistic spectrum, which includes true that many people who will read it
Asperger' s syndrome. Since everyone can, like its author, notice autistic traits
has some common knowledge about in themselves. For millennia we neuro-
the condition, my first task is to record typicals have refused to acknowledge
ten reservations, qualifications, and neurodiversity and so (it is said) do not
cautions, in order to guard against this understand even ourselves.
or that misapprehension. People with autism are part of this di-
First and foremost, all of those chil- versity, celebrated in an era and a culture
dren and adults with autism are very dif- such as ours, where difference is under-
ferent from each other. There are books stood as a good thing. The movement is
titled or subtitled "The Autistic Child," a fascinating development in the odyssey
but there is no such entity, the autistic of autism. But beware : I have noticed
child, as if it were a subspecies of hu- that when I say "neuro typical" in mixed
man beings. One current slogan, "If you or neurotypical company, many neuro-
know about one autistic person, you typicals say "neuro-normal" back to me.
know about one autistic person," cannot That's exactly to miss the point. The neu-
be emphasized too much. In what fol- rodiversity movement rejects the idea
lows I shall pay special attention to one that there is neuro-normality.
trait of autism in its more severe forms, Third qualification : autism is filed
but I do not mean to imply that anyone as a pervasive developmental disorder,
diagnosed with autism exemplifies this one that can be noticed very early in life.
trait to a strong degree. I use an abstrac- What we now call autism began as infan-
tion based on a stereotype of this trait tile autism, but never forget that autism
to think about all humanity; it does not is for life. There is neither a known cause
reflect in any way on the details of a life nor a known cure. Matters stand differ-
lived by any individual. I am using au- ently, however, from the ways they stood
tism as a vehicle, and am not discus- a few decades ago. We now know how to
sing the condition in its own right. work with very young autistic children,
46 Dcedalus Summer 2009
in order to help them compensate for speak of being severely autistic - which, Humans,
aliens &
their differences and adapt to the world if anything, covers an even wider range autism
of neurotypicals. Many labor-intensive of individuals. Spectrum is a metaphor
programs are available, although autistic from optics; if we are to use a meta-
communities say there are not yet nearly phor from the sciences, I would prefer
enough. to speak of an autistic manifold. But
We are also doing a fair job of helping the terminology of spectra is too estab-
neurotypicals to be less uncomfortable lished to root out.
in the company of autistic people. This Sixth, it is common to distinguish
is not a ground for complacency, but the three groups of difficulties experienced
lives of many families with one or more by autistic children, namely, social and
severely autistic children are a great deal linguistic difficulties and fixedness ;
better than they could have been even these persist in various degrees through
twenty years ago. life. This triad, as it is called, may be
A fourth reservation is that there more of a mnemonic than a definition,
are a great many approaches to autism, although it is canonized in diagnostic
none of which is definitive. There are protocols. It focuses on three difficul-
also many advocacy groups with differ- ties deemed to be central, but there are
ent targets, which is why I spoke of au- many other aspects of autism, some
tistic communities in the plural. Some more physical than mental.
of the differences arise from the nature Many people with autism have
of the autistic individuals involved; oth- (a) various kinds of disadvantage in
ers arise from very different conceptions social interactions with neurotypicals.
of autism and even of disability. Some Most important for the purposes of
autistic communities reject the very this essay are their problems under-
idea of a cure, which Cure Autism Now standing what other people are doing,
(CAN) espouses. Another organization, thinking, and feeling. Many cannot
Defeat Autism Now ! (DAN ! ) emphasizes read your state of mind from your body
diet and supplements, among other language in the way that most children
things. The Autism National Committee can. I do not refer here to the theory
(AUTCOM) urges that autistic people are that autists lack a "Theory of Mind" ;
the real experts on autism. At present it I mean something prior to theory, not
argues for the importance of facilitated something theoretical about a theory
communication, a technique that oth- and its absence in autists. I try to stay
ers hold to be a sham. closer to phenomena, best put by say-
Fifth, it is now standard to speak of ing that many autistic people do not
the autistic spectrum and of autistic immediately know what another per-
spectrum disorders, "ASDs." A spec- son is doing and have to work it out
trum is intended to emphasize the previ- from clues. This is one part, but an es-
ous point about variety, but the image is sential one, of a larger canvas of diffi-
problematic : spectra are linear and au- culties in human relationships, includ-
tism isn't. The metaphor suggests that ing those within the family. This aspect
you can arrange autistic people on a line, of autism - which, to repeat, shows up
from more to less. It does make sense to in innumerable ways and in many de-
speak of high-functioning people with grees - is my focus below. Not surpris-
autism, but that covers an extraordinary ingly, we shall find that it is a primary
range of people. It also makes sense to ground for the metaphor of aliens.
Ian In addition, many autistic children An eighth observation is that no one
Hacking
have (b) difficulties acquiring spoken knows whether these several problems
on being
human language, to the point that some are arise from a single neurological anomaly,
mute for life, and many (c) are upset or have distinct causes. Likewise, no one
by change. They take what is said liter- knows what is going to help. Even when
ally. They do not understand pretending, we have two autistic brothers, and hence
and they do not play, even alone, in the a presumed shared genetic basis for their
ways in which most children do. I call autism, a regime that helps one may be
this fixedness, but many other terms useless to his brother. For example, in
are in use. A diagnosis on the autistic Charlotte Moore's biography of her two
spectrum demands that at least two of autistic sons, George and Sam, one boy
these three deficits, or differences, are is much helped by a gluten-and-casein-
apparent. free diet, but it is useless for his broth-
Many autistic children find their dif- er.4 Yet the brother is much helped by a
ferences from most people to be both program intended to help autistic chil-
deeply frustrating and frightening. The dren "integrate" sensory experiences
communal and family worlds in which that overpower them ; this does not help
they are expected to live are hospitable the first boy at all. (Moore is one parent
to most neurotypical children, but are who emphasizes the physical aspects of
constantly threatening for many autis- autism that are so often underplayed in
tic ones. Some of them succumb to vio- textbooks and manuals.)
lent temper tantrums. Others just want A ninth reservation, of a different
to get away to a safe place, curling up, type, is that I shall use the word autism
for example, in a closet or on a stairwell. to talk about anything said to be on the
Seventh, there are many aspects of au- autistic spectrum. Take Asperger's syn-
tism beyond the triad. Many autistic drome, introduced about 1980 by Lorna
children are subject to seizures. Many Wing, a British psychiatrist, in the name
are hypersensitive to loud sounds, bright of a Viennese doctor who long before
colors, and itchy surfaces, even the tex- had diagnosed a small group of children
ture of a drink. A quite different group with autistic difficulties but who did
of problems, sometimes gathered un- not have notable problems acquiring
der the label dyspraxia, is quite com- language. The name Asperger's is now
mon. It primarily involves motor skills : often used synonymously with "high-
bad balance, a tendency to bump into functioning," but there are also debates
things, poor hand-eye coordination, as to whether it is something different
difficulties in initiating or stopping altogether.
movements, and even a poor hand- Lorna Wing, who also characterized
grasp, which makes it hard to use a key the triad of difficulties mentioned above,
or a pencil. Many dyspraxic children is no longer content with the classifi-
begin to crawl, stand, and jump much cation she created. It is said that some
later than their peers. Thus, although members of the developmental disor-
autism is usually thought of as a clus- ders task force for the future DSM- V
ter of mental and emotional disabili- want to eliminate Asperger's as a diag-
ties, there may also be many physical nosis. I take no position, except that
disabilities - or, to speak with the neu- despite the current popularity of the
rodiversity movement, many physical label "Asperger's," I shall avoid it. I
differences. use autism for the entire manifold of
associated difficulties. This does not im- take rubella very seriously, and consid- Humans,
aliens &
ply any criticism of the very large num- er it horrible that parents, relying on autism
ber of people who cheerfully call them- ill-founded rumors about vaccines no
selves Aspies. Likewise, I shall not say longer in use, have stopped vaccinating
"on the autistic spectrum." Once we their children.
have agreed that autism is polymorphic
in its manifestations, it is better to speak /Vutism picked up the trope of the
simply of autism. alien about twenty years ago. It has
A tenth remark concerns some all-too- been flourishing in some autistic quar-
frequently-asked questions. I shall an- ters, and is reviled in others. For starters,
swer two of them without argument, not there are books with titles like Through
to take a stand, but to evade the ques- the Eyes of Aliens, whose author is herself
tions while showing where I do stand. autistic,6 or, Women from Another Planet?
One question is about incidence : are whose author is afflicted by, among oth-
there really more autistic children born er things, Asperger' s syndrome and has
every year than ever before in history? organized a women's collective to tell
Are the amazing increases in reported stories of their lives with Asperger' s.7
prevalence due to an epidemic of au- A chapter in the latter book is called
tism? My answer is no. The increases are "How I came to understand the neuro-
thanks to expanding criteria of diagno- typical world."8 You can hear two types
sis, much greater alertness on the part of of voice behind the titles of these books :
primary-care physicians and teachers to yes, we are aliens, and it is great to be
the possibility of autism, and to the fact different, quirks and all; no, we are not
that a diagnosis of autism gets a troubled aliens, we are women here on Earth,
child much better care for special needs out to reorganize social norms.
than any other diagnosis. Thus a decent There is also a new genre of fiction,
GP with the option of diagnosing autism featuring novels in which an autistic
will almost always do so, because it is character plays an essential part in
good for the child and the family. the plot. A significant proportion of
A second question is about the mercu- these works are written by parents or
ry in the old-fashioned MMR, which in- relatives of autistic children, including
cludes the measles vaccine. Does it pre- Marti Leimbach' s Daniel Isn't Talking,
dispose toward, or cause, autism? No.5 a book that resonates with many par-
But let me add a caveat. A child's brain, ents of autists. In that novel, we are set
from conception to the age of two years, up from the start : shopping with her
grows at a prodigious rate. It is an unbe- mother, the twenty-two-year-old future
lievably sensitive instrument, putting mother of Daniel says, "I could only
itself together over the course of thirty- give birth to an alien." Her mother re-
three months. We should be very wary plies, "You will have the most beautiful
of subclinical toxic substances in the en- babies." Later on in the book, after her
vironment. My two youngest grandchil- son is diagnosed with autism, Daniel's
dren are under two. When their respec- mother feels "as though I started the
tive mothers were pregnant, I strongly journey this morning with my beloved
urged both mothers to go organic, and little boy and am returning with a slight-
to avoid the armory of toxic cleansers ly alien, uneducable time bomb."9
found in most modern homes. I take Another novel, Cammie McGovern's
toxicity very seriously indeed. I also thriller Eye Contact, features a ten-year-
Dcedalus Summer 2009 49
Ian
old severely autistic boy who (perhaps) mother's amazing teaching practices.
Hacking
witnesses the murder of a slightly older In a review of Iversen's book on Ama-
on being
human girl. A special-needs aide says, "I used zon's U.S. site, Mukhopadhyay writes :
to think : Here are a bunch of kids so "The book Strange Son felt like a 'slap' on
brilliant, so truly ahead of us intellectu- my face
ally, they came out of the womb, took tioned as 'beastly,' 'alien being,' 'pos-
one look around this screwed-up world sessed by a demon.'" He hates many of
and said to themselves, Good-bye. I'll Iversen's statements, such as, "When I
go on living, but not here. Not on this left their apartment that day I felt as if
planet/'10 I'd glimpsed into the mind of an alien
The trope is found in science fiction, being."14 Some people find the trope
as well as in tales for children. Of Mice of the alien a powerful way to state the
and Aliens combines both genres. Zeke, obvious, while others find it odious.
an alien, crash-lands in the backyard
of Ben, a boy who has recently been In 2005, Bob and Suzanne Wright
declared to have Asperger' s syndrome. founded Autism Speaks. It has become
Together they set out to explore Ben's the engine of charities for autism re-
suburban Australian world and its in- search in the United States, and it is now
habitants. "With Ben learning to cope assuming that role in the United King-
with his newly diagnosed Asperger' s dom. Mr. Wright is CEO of NBC Univer-
syndrome, and Zeke trying to cope with sal, and a powerhouse in the corporate
life on Earth, things are not always as world. Why did he and his wife found
they seem."11 Here it is not autists as Autism Speaks ? He is often quoted as
aliens, but aliens and autists in cahoots. saying, "I want my grandson back ! " The
All permutations seem to be played metaphor of abduction feels overpower-
out. Pamela Victor's character Baj, on ing to some families ; a baby that was a
the planet Aulnar, has not only a flying lovely human being has disappeared.
bicycle, but a magical communication Jim Sinclair, in a talk titled "Don't
kit (the Word Launcher) and an invis- Mourn for Us,"15 countered this atti-
ible Calming Cape. There is also the tude. He urged parents not to go around
equivalent of a magical ear trumpet, pining for a child they wanted but nev-
which enables Baj to spot the point er had. To Sinclair, there never was the
of what someone is saying to him.12 grandson that the Wrights thought they
Back in the real world, contrast such had. If they need to mourn, they should
enthusiasm for aliens with Tito Rajar- go to a grief counselor who helps par-
shi Mukhopadhyay's reaction to Por- ents of children who died in infancy.
tia Iversen's Strange Son.1^ Mukhopad- Sinclair was speaking for yet an-
hyay, seriously handicapped except other advocacy organization, GRASP :
when he is at a computer keyboard, The Global and Regional Asperger Syn-
is a gifted autistic author. Strange Son is drome Partnership. For the autistic
about Iversen's own son, and his and child, he said, it is the parents and the
her encounters with Mukhopadhyay and neurotypicals who are alien :
his mother. Iversen is a founder of Cure
Each of us [autistic people] who does
Autism Now, whose alien abduction
learn to talk to you, each of us who
ad was mentioned earlier. She brought
both mother and son from India to manages to function at all in your so-
America so she could disseminate the ciety, each of us who manages to reach
out and make a connection with you, is already knows. Thus in the dialogue De Humans,
aliens &
operating in alien territory, making con- Oratore, Cicero has Crassus say, "the face autism
tact with alien beings. We spend our en- is an image of the soul, while the eyes re-
tire lives doing this. And then you tell us flect it."18 Cicero is not idly repeating
that we can't relate.
some piece of general knowledge. His
protagonist is discussing the delivery of
The trope of the alien, then, is symmet-
a speech, and seems to be counseling the
ric : autistic people are aliens ; or neuro-
orator to use his eyes as if he means what
typicals are aliens for autistic people.
he says : even if you do not feel such-and-
I have already mentioned an entertain-
such an emotion, use your eyes to simu-
ing version that combines both angles,
late the emotion. Here Cicero exploits
namely Aspergia.16 "Each human cul-
an already well-understood conceit.
ture has a mythology to account for its
existence and whence it came. Now we It is much the same with St. Jerome,
who of course knew his Cicero. Writing
have one too ! " Aspergia is today's At-
to a widow, telling her how to preserve
lantis, a planet from which the Asper-
her modesty and chastity, Jerome be-
gians came to Earth. (One blogger calls
gins a paragraph, "Avoid the company
Aspergia her utopia). Aspergians have
of young men." He goes on to warn,
found that Earth is inhabited by some
"The face is the mirror of the mind and
alien form of life called humans.
a woman's eyes without a word betray
Why does the metaphor of the alien crop
the secrets of her heart. "19
up so often in fact and fiction ? Let us take
Dante's Convívio, composed after the
Temple Grandin's comment - "Much
death of Beatrice as a poet's version of
of the time I feel like an anthropologist
The Consolations of Philosophy, is a strange
on Mars" - seriously for a moment.
work, parts of which are written in the
Wittgenstein thought, "If a lion could
talk, we could not understand him."17 form of poems followed by commentary
on the poems. The soul, writes Dante,
If a Martian spoke, would we under-
"reveals herself in the eyes so clearly that
stand it? Only if we shared or came to
the emotion present in her may be rec-
share some "forms of life," some ways
ognized by anyone who gazes at them
of living together. That is precisely the
intently."20 This is part of a commen-
problem for a person with severe autism.
tary on the lines :
Autistic people have a great deal of diffi-
culty sharing any form of life with the In her countenance appear such things
neurotypical community. But the evoca- As manifest a part of the joy of Paradise.
tive phrase, "form of life," is never more I mean in her eyes and in her sweet smile,
than a pointer; we need to be more spe- For here Love draws them, as to himself.
cific about what's missing.
The "her" of the commentary is con-
strued as Dame Philosophy herself,
lhe eyes are the mirror of the soul,"
or window to the soul. At least since Ro- and the entire work is an incredibly
overworked conceit. My point is only
man times, some version of this maxim
that Dante was playing with a saying he
has been in circulation, evident in such
could assume to be familiar to anyone.
places as the Latin proverb, Oculus animi
To judge by printed dictionaries of
index. The well-known literary figures
proverbs, the maxim appears as a prov-
who use this saying play with it as a
erb in all modern European languages.
standing reference point that everyone
A list of English printed versions of the
Ian
saying, from 1545 to the present decade, of another are not a window to the soul of
Hacking
is readily found in the Oxford Dictionary that other person. Emotions, says Dante,
on being
human of Proverbs, with the last entry taken can be recognized in the eyes by anyone
from a South Florida thriller: "All that "who gazes at them intently" ; but that is
windows-of-the-soul bullshit." The exactly what most seriously autistic peo-
speaker, usually dismissive of eyes as ple cannot do : gaze at the eyes intently,
windows, recants on looking at an old or perceive emotions therein.
school photo of the villain. He had been Conversely, the eyes of the autist are
viewing the FBI's state-of-the-art digital not a clear mirror of the soul within, as
processing of photos on a screen. "It was neurotypicals would expect. Many au-
excellent work, but like every computer tistic children seem positively cherubic
enhancement he'd seen, something when they are at peace. (Yes, cherubs
was lost from the original photograph. are from another world.) Yet one can-
Some spark in the eyes." In the small not see what is going on in their heads.
class photo there is "a brooding defi- Some neurotypicals are frightened by
ance," such as one might see in torture the blankness, for they feel that maybe
victims whose whole sense of fear has there is no soul there.
mutated, but "also a glint of bitter hu- But there is the face, too. Analogous
mor. This was some smug little alien sayings, evidenced by Cicero himself,
bastard."21 Not from outer space, Hal refer to the face as mirror or image of
is just a very nasty piece of work, a the soul. Dante's stanza begins, "In her
"psychopath" employed as an assas- countenance appear such things," for it
sin by a drug cartel. was the eyes and the mouth that struck
The faded photograph, with those the poet. That is precisely why smiley
eyes, is something of a window on faces and their variants are such good
Hal's soul. "On the television screen, icons. They are now used, in some teach-
however, his eyes were flat and empty. ing regimens, to train autistic children
Drained of any hint of humanity by how to recognize the emotions of oth-
the digital rendering." This is a shrewd ers.
observation. The farther you are from Cicero discussed the face and eyes
the material body, the less you can see in the larger context of the body and
in the eyes. Notice that the hero saw a its gestures. So let us turn to the whole
brooding defiance ; he inferred from such body, its movements, and its stance. A
cues that this was some smug bastard. point easily missed is that, whether it
is the eyes, the face, or the body, the tra-
lhe eyes, as mirror of the soul, or dition that is packed into the proverbs
as window on the soul, have served always conveys the idea of seeing direct-
as a standard metaphor in the West for ly, and not of inferring. There is no ap-
millennia. Autism connects with this parent reasoning going on : one just
metaphor by way of autists' notorious looks into, or through, the eyes to see
difficulty with eye contact. For what- the soul. More generally, as Wittgen-
ever reason, autistic people, when they stein has it, "The human body is the
look at someone's face at all, tend to best picture of the human soul. "22
focus on the lower part of the face (the
mouth and chin) and not the eyes. This Wittgenstein was hardly being orig-
phenomenon has an immediate conse- inal when he penned that aphorism,
quence. For a person with autism, the eyes speaking from a tradition at least as old
as Cicero. His remark is one of many in I, though, believe Köhler is absolutely Humans,
aliens &
Part II of the Philosophical Investigations correct in describing the phenomena ; autism
that seem to encapsulate ideas found there is nothing worth the name of in-
in the middle part of Wolfgang Köh- ference here. The friend just sees; he
ler' s Gestalt Psychology, first published has a "direct picture." Of course, in
in 1929. 23 (Wittgenstein devoted some every one of Köhler' s examples there
of his classes to the first edition of that will be cases which call for inference.
book.) Köhler thinks many aspects of The point is not that one never infers,
the body provide "pictures" of the in- but that often one just "sees." A neu-
ner thoughts and feelings. For Köhler, rocognitivist may insist that there must
it is not only stance, but also body-lan- always be a "computation" that passes
guage, as we now say: " [N]ot only the from the sensory input to an under-
so-called expressive movements but standing of the mental state of another
also the practical behavior of human person. Köhler would say that, if so,
beings is a good picture of their inner it must be different in kind from the
life, in a great many cases."24 "computation" involved in inference.
Both men give numerous examples Köhler knew he was only describing,
of such phenomena of seeing in the and he hoped that later generations of
eyes and in the movements of the body, workers would be able to explain and
as well as through agitation, what a per- understand the phenomenon. He wrote
son feels, thinks, or intends ; seeing that that his account "gives us neither an
a person is in a bad mood ; noticing that altogether new nor an altogether per-
a child both wants to touch a dog and fect key to another person's inner life ;
is frightened of doing so. Köhler is now it tries only to describe so far as it can
mostly remembered for his work with that kind of understanding which is the
apes, and for his theory of visual orga- common property and practice of mankind."
nization, part of the Gestalt theory of He hoped for future work "when the
perception. But the middle of his book simpler facts described in this chapter
is dense in close observations of ordi- will have found more general acknowl-
nary behavior, some of which were re- edgement."27
cast into elegant phrases by Wittgen- I do not think we have fully come to
stein.25 Here is a more complex case : terms with the "simpler facts" Köhler
presents. They certainly bear on autism,
If my attention is attracted by a strange
for that kind of immediate understand-
object, a snake for instance, I feel direct-
ing that Köhler described is not the com-
ed toward it and at the same time a feeling
mon property and practice of that part of hu-
of tension is experienced. A friend, even if
mankind that is autistic.
he has not recognized the snake, will see
me and especially my face and eyes direct-
We should pay attention to Köhler' s
ed toward it; in the tension of my face he
and Wittgenstein's contrast between, on
will have a visual picture of my inner ten-
the one hand, what one sees in the eyes,
sion, as in its direction he has a direct pic-
face, body, and the movements and ges-
ture of the direction which I experience.26
tures of another, and, on the other hand,
Some readers will see in this vignette the what is inferred. The existence of such
friend inferring from Köhler' s behavior immediate understanding does not im-
that he is unnerved, and inferring where ply that what one sees is merely the exer-
to look for the source of Köhler' s feeling. cise of an innate faculty, for it is to some
Ian
extent learned or acquired in the com- tive theory. We do not infer other minds
Hacking
on being
munity of others. For example, one does by analogy; instead, we come equipped
human not so readily see what foreigners are with a Theory of Mind module, a facul-
doing, let alone see into their souls, as ty for attributing mental states to other
is the case with one's compatriots. people. This has become a canonical
Köhler' s phenomena should make part of psychology, much preferred to
us rethink an idea widely shared by ana- models of analogy or inference. The idea
lytical philosophers : the idea that one was inaugurated by David Premack and
knows the mind of another - or indeed Guy Woodruff studying chimpanzees.
that others have minds at all - "by anal- Quickly it led in 1983 to the false-belief
ogy with one's own case." We would be tests devised by Heinz Wimmer and Jo-
better to heed Lev Vygostky's proposals, sef Perner. Autistic children fare poorly
that concepts of the mental life come on these tests, which require thinking
later than an understanding of commu- about what other people believe, given
nal life, and are "internalized" not as the evidence that they possess. Thanks
an entry ticket to society, but only in the to Simon Baron-Cohen, Alan Leslie, and
course of growing up and living among Uta Frith, among others, the tests have
groups of people, starting with the ex- joined the arsenal for diagnosing autism.
tended family. Many people hardly waste the time to
Underlying the "Other Minds" pic- write out "Theory of Mind" any more,
ture is a fundamental misconception, they just write "T0M."29 1 do not follow
namely that I get the idea of mind and this practice, because the very fact that
soul from knowledge of my own mind. we use an abbreviation makes us take it
The reasoning seems straightforward. for granted, as some sort of proven fact.
I know what I think and feel and hope One great virtue of the Theory of
for ; I know whom I love and whom Mind approach is that the ability to
I despise ; I know my left foot is sore. know what other people feel and think
How do I know? By looking inside my- is no longer supposed to be a matter of
self, how else ? analogical inference, as the old Anglo
That picture prompts what is called philosophers thought. Rather, it is an
the Problem of Other Minds. It is not innate capacity, one that kicks in at an
a universal or timeless problem of phi- early stage as the child matures, and
losophy. It was brought to the fore only which may be associated with a Theory
in the early twentieth century by men of Mind mental module. As a corollary,
such as William James and Bertrand it does not kick in as early, or as well, for
Russell.28 How do I know what you are most autistic children.
thinking since I cannot look into your Further speculation is fuelled by the
mind? By analogy to my own case, an- idea of mirror neurons. Brain scans in-
swered Russell and James. Later in the dicate that when Jones sees that Smith
century, analytic philosophers said that is sad or angry, blood flows to those
it is not analogy, but explanation that is same neurons it flows to when Jones
used. I explain your behavior by postu- himself is sad or angry. In general, when
lating that you have a mind like mine. Jones observes Smith doing something,
This is called "an inference to the best or feeling an emotion, the very parts of
explanation." Jones's brain that are activated when he
The next step in this sequence of ideas is so acting or feeling are activated by his
is part of the overall repertoire of cogni- observing Smith. This phenomenon, it
may be conjectured, underlies the phe- More disturbing is an inability even Humans,
aliens &
nomena described by Köhler and apho- to see what autistic children are doing. autism
rized by Wittgenstein. Their actions make little sense, their in-
Hence there is promising research that tentions are opaque. With the severely
suggests that the mirror neurons of au- autistic, it may seem as if they do not
tistic people are not in working order ; even have many intentions. Hence they
either they are absent, or they function are taken to be emotionally "thin" chil-
differently. I emphasize that these fasci- dren, who grow up to be "thin" men
nating investigations are still open, how- and women, lacking a "thick" emotion-
ever. A cynic may propose that the story al life. Or so it has seemed to most peo-
is being told backward: Jones's relevant ple, including many parents and many
neurons are active on seeing Smith sad clinicians.
simply because he sees Smith sad - not, At best, the feelings and emotions of
he sees Smith sad because his sadness the severely autistic must be inferred.
neurons have been triggered. We are not even confident of our infer-
ences, not because we lack enough evi-
JjLaving acknowledged some of the dence, but because we may doubt that
truly exciting theories and conjectures the concepts that have evolved over mil-
about the mind now in circulation, let us lennia for the description of neurotypi-
return to the phenomena described by cals are apt for the autistic life. Here it is
Köhler. They are familiar to most people, necessary to repeat my first caution. I am
but are precisely what are not familiar, using an abstraction from one of many
automatic, immediate, or instinctive for autistic traits in order to think about the
most autistic people. As we have said, human condition, and am not speaking
they are not "the common property and directly to questions about the nature of
practice" of that part of mankind that is autism or the experience of autistic indi-
autistic. Expert observers report that au- viduals.
tistic children do not see that someone Language matters. I would guess that
is in a bad humor ; they do not follow as long as there has been human com-
the direction of a startled person's gaze ; munication, there have been ways to
they do not readily understand what an- describe emotions and intentions. Per-
other person is doing - that is, they do haps that is a mistake. Perhaps there is
not easily recognize intentions. a long prehistory of human self-realiza-
Conversely, ordinary people cannot tion. That is, the Vygotskyan project of
see what an autistic boy is doing when, crafting a language for the emotions of
to take a banal example, he is furious- others and ourselves may have taken
ly flapping his hands. What on earth is many, many generations of our remote
hand-flapping? The parent or other out- ancestors to complete. And only late in
sider knows vaguely that there must be prehistory, on this scenario, would this
some kind of agitation, yet the child language have been internalized. What
seems so tranquil when hand-flapping. is now called first-person authority over
Articulate autists tell us how calming it awareness of our own emotional states
is. So we are now able to infer a bit of would, then, have come into being slow-
what's going on; but instinctive neuro- ly. If so, individuals with autism would
typical ways of interacting with other not have stood out in the same way that
people do not enable us to look and see they do now. (I am here speaking of pre-
what the child is feeling. history, not of the quite different fact
Ian
that compulsory universal elementary Neurotypicals and severely autistic
Hacking
education was a prerequisite for noticing people do not initially share a form
on being
human various kinds of cognitive difficulty in a of life because the bedrock is lacking,
systematic way.) and so an artificial platform must be
Whatever evolutionary psychohisto- constructed. That is one way to de-
ry we choose to imagine, it is a fact that scribe what is going on right now. In
there has been a language for the inten- retrospect, we shall almost certainly
tions, desires, and emotions of other see today's Internet as making possi-
people for all of historical time. It was, ble a form of life in which autistic peo-
however, crafted by and for neurotypi- ple can thrive. It is precisely the medi-
cals. We are only just beginning to adapt um for human communication that
that language to the autistic life. In this does not depend on body language or
we are much helped by autobiographies, eye contact - in short, it does not need
novels, and the immensely rich world Köhler's phenomena.
of autism lived on the Internet. It is very What distinguishes us from aliens (as
common to say that autobiographies de- we depict our contraries) is notoriously
scribe autism "from the inside."30 1 sug- not rationality, but our emotional lives.
gest there is little ready-made language We are fellow humans in that we grasp
to describe this inside, and that the auto- each other's intentions, feelings, wants.
biographies and the blogs are creating it Köhler's phenomena enable such under-
right now. standing to be taken for granted in our
common ways of life. They are the bedrock
We asked, "Why does the metaphor of our humanity.
of the alien crop up so often in fact and This conclusion is "obvious" ; yet be-
fiction?" We can now state an answer: cause the phenomena are so familiar,
because of the absence of Köhler's phe- it takes an acute observer of human
nomena in relations between neurotypi- and animal behavior to point it out to

cals and autistic people. These phenom- us. It takes a great philosopher to see
ena are the "bedrock" for a "shared form what the observer has noticed, and to
of life," to use two of Wittgenstein's cast that into an aphorism. The insights
compelling phrases. Not only does Tem- of Köhler and Wittgenstein have been
ple Grandin feel like an anthropologist virtually forgotten, even when the lat-
on Mars, but neurotypicals feel they ter' s aphorisms are cited in thought-
are confronted by unintelligible Mar- less awe. An inquiry into the trope of
tians when they first confront the real- autists and aliens may have been useful
ity of autism. It is important that she not only to notice something about au-
says Mars, and not Papua New Guinea. tism, but also to remind us of a funda-
Innumerable languages are spoken in mental fact about human beings.
that part of the world, and the customs Köhler made an interesting observa-
first encountered by Europeans are pass- tion on the score of what is obvious. "It
ing strange. But in no time at all, visitors is not our fault that, to a deplorable de-
and inhabitants were talking, generat- gree, the obvious has disappeared from
ing créoles, taking advantage of each learned psychology, so that we have to
other. They did not share a common rediscover it."31 There is a great affini-
civilization, but they shared something ty between Wittgenstein and Köhler on
far more fundamental, captured by this attitude to what we do not notice,
Wittgenstein's metaphor of bedrock. both because it is always before our eyes,
and also because we theorize instead of now common practice to try to teach Humans,
aliens &
looking. them how to infer the feelings and in- autism
tentions of other children and adults
JLt is well to conclude with a quite gen- from behavior, gestures, and tone of
erous remark about human nature. We voice. There are even posters showing
tend to be exclusive. Anthropology and what many people look like when they
sociology teach that human groups hang are happy or sad. These may include
together partly because of who they in- devices as simple as smiley faces and
clude and partly because of who they ex- their kin. There are far more elaborate
clude. Our instinct has always been to programs to teach how to tell, for ex-
exclude aliens, first the terrestrial ones ample, when the person you are talk-
and then the extraterrestrial. There are ing to is getting bored, so that you will
a few fans of the SETI project, the Search not go on enthusing about the topic
for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, who on which your passions are fixed, be
see themselves as welcoming intelligent it brontosauruses or electric coffee-
beings from outer space. But in general, makers.
the rule is "keep the others out." There is immense controversy about
Neurotypical society has certainly what helps what person. Sometimes bit-
excluded severely autistic people, con- ter words are exchanged as one school
signing them, at best, to the role of vil- of thought and action confronts another.
lage idiots or feral children, and, at Desperate parents of the severely autis-
worst, consigning them to institutions tic try everything. It is becoming pretty
that, in retrospect, seem absolutely hor- clear that no specific agenda is good for
rific. Whether or not the metaphor has every autistic person. But there is good
been used, the practice has been to ex- reason to hope that, as I said at the start,
clude the severely autistic as if they the social history of this ongoing prog-
were aliens. But now there are remark- ress is a promising tale of hard work. It
able endeavors afoot that aim at inte- is a ray of light in the rather gloomy his-
grating autistic individuals into a larg- tory of humans of the past few decades.
er social world.
Precisely because autistic children do
not share in Köhler' s phenomena, it is
ENDNOTES
1 Oliver Sacks, "An Anthropologist on Mars," The New Yorker, December 27, 1993 ; reprinted
in Sacks, An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales (New York: Knopf, 1995), 295.
2 Starting, perhaps, with Lucian of Samosata (ca. 125 - ca. 182), A True Story, trans. A. M.
Harmon, Loeb Classical Library 14 (Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1968),
247-357.
3 A short but wise passage in Leibniz captures many of the uses of aliens ; New Essays Con-
cerning the Human Understanding, trans. Jonathan Bennett and Peter Remnant (Cambridge :
Cambridge University Press, 1981), III, vi, section 22, as well as the notes. (This is mostly
omitted from the abridged edition of 1982.)
4 Charlotte Moore, George and Sam : Two Boys, One Family, and Autism (London: Viking,
2004).
Ian 5 Leave aside the statistical analyses of the Centers for Disease Control and other authorities
Hacking (which, as it turns out, detect no effect) to consider that Japan cut mercury out of vaccines
on being
human
at the first whiff of trouble, and the rapid increase in autism diagnoses continued much as
in the United States and the United Kingdom.
6 Jasmine Lee O'Neill, Through the Eyes of Aliens : A Book about Autistic People (London : Jessica
Kingsley Publishers, 1998).
7 Jean Kearns Miller, Women from Another Planet? Our Lives in the Universe of Autism (ist
Books Library, 2003). Miller says she has been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder
with Asperger's syndrome traits, as well as major depression.
8 Ibid., 141.
9 Marti Leimbach, Daniel Isn't Talking (London: Fourth Estate, 2006), 4, 91.
10 Cammie McGovern, Eye Contact (New York: Viking, 2006), 60.
11 The quotation is from the back cover blurb. Kathy Hoopmann, Of Mice and Aliens (Lon-
don : Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2001). This book is a sequel in the Asperger Adventures
series to Hoopmann's Blue Bottle Mystery (London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2001), in
which Ben first finds out what ails him.
12 Pamela Victor, Baj and the Word Launcher : Space Age Asperger Adventures in Communication
(London : Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2006).
13 Portia Iversen, Strange Son : Two Mothers, Two Sons, and the Quest to Unlock the Hidden World
of Autism (New York: Riverhead Books, 2006).
14 Ibid., 129.
15 A talk given at the International Conference on Autism, Toronto, 1993, and published in
Our Voice, the newsletter of Autism Network International ; available at http ://www.grasp
.org/media/mourn.pdf. One self-described "deconstruction" of Sinclair's may be found
on a website whose name repudiates the trope of the alien : Whose planet is it anyway ? The
site features a blog, "Don't Mourn, Get Attitude" (August 9, 2006), whose title, the author
explains, "is intended to make one thing clear: We are not, and never were, extraterrestri-
als flying around in UFOs, freakish mutants wandering the galaxy, or aliens lost in space,
and we have just as much right to be on Planet Earth as anyone else." The blog refers to
the umbrella organization Autism Speaks as a "hate group" ; http ://autisticbfh.blogspot
.com/2006/08/dont-mourn-get-attitude.html.
16 I am quoting from http ://www.aspergia.com/, accessible through 2006, but no longer
active.
17 Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, rev. 3rd trans. (1953; Oxford: Blackwell,
2001), 190e.
1° Cicero, De Oratore, 3.221 : "Ut imago est animi voltus sic indices oculi," from Cicero on the Ideal
Orator, trans. James M. May and Jakob Wisse (New York and Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2001), 294.
19 St. Jerome, Letters, Letter 54, ToFuria. I have used the old translation from The Principal
Works of St. Jerome, trans. W. H. Fremantle (Oxford: Parker & Company, 1893). The Loeb
version, Select Letters of St. Jerome, trans. F. A. Wright (Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard Univer-
sity Press, 1933), has the accurate translation, "The face is the mirror of the mind, and eyes
without speaking confess the secrets of the heart," but the older version better conveys the
intent of the letter.
20 Dante, Convívio, Trattato III, chap. 8, between line markers 9 and 10 : "Dimostrasi ne H occhi
tanto manifesta, ehe conoscer si può la sua presente passione, chi bene là mira, " from Dante 's II
Convívio (The Banquet) , trans. R. H. Lansing (New York: Garland, 1990), 111.
21 James W. Hall, Rough Draft (New York: Macmillan, 2001), 23. I do not know whether the
author intended it or not, but he gives Hal traits common among autistic people, including
echolalia, the practice of repeating back what a speaker has just said. He cannot be said to Humans,
aliens &
experience most human emotions, but he has learned to work out what other people are
autism
feeling and how it will affect their behavior.
22 Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, 152e.
23 Wolfgang Köhler, Gestalt Psychology (New York: Horace Liveright, 1929).
24 Ibid., 250.
25 I provide exact citations in "Autistic Autobiography," Philosophical Transactions of the Roy-

al Society Β (Biological Sciences) 364 (1522) (2009) : 1467 - 1473. 1 owe my first reflections on
Köhler and Wittgenstein to Janette Dinishak, "Wittgenstein and Koehler on Seeing and
Seeing Aspects" (doctoral thesis, University of Toronto, 2008). She has helped me a good
deal with this and other writings on autism.
26 Köhler, Gestalt Psychology, 250-251.
27 Ibid., 266 - 267 ; emphasis added.
28 An early discussion of the Problem of Other Minds is in John Stuart Mill, An Exami-
nation of Sir William Hamilton s Philosophy and of the Principal Philosophical Questions dis-
cussed in his Writings (London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts & Green, 1865),
Chapter XII. The Problem seems to be insular, peculiar to the English language. There
are major entries for Other Minds in standard English-language philosophical encyclo-
pedias (Edwards, Routledge, Stanford Online), but not in those of other languages. We
find, for example, in French a "problème des autres esprits" only where the author refers
to Anglo writers. In their books Problems of Philosophy , which mark the onset of the idea
that philosophy consists of problems, such as the Problem of Other Minds, both James
and Russell present the problem, and the solution, by analogy.
29 David Premack and Guy Woodruff, "Does the Chimpanzee Have a Theory of Mind?"
Behavioral and Brain Science 1 (1978) : 515 - 526 ; Uta Frith and Francesca Happé, "Theory
of Mind and Self-Consciousness : What is it Like to be Autistic?" Mind & Language 14
(1999): 1-22.
3° See Hacking, "Autistic Autobiography" for examples of this practice.

31 Köhler, Gestalt Psychology , 350.

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Humans, Aliens & Autism

Author(s): Ian Hacking

Humans, aliens & autism

44 Dœdalus Summer 2009

have entered common usage in post- in us or in the human condition. Let us

Dœdalus Summer 2009 45

46 Dcedalus Summer 2009

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48 Dcedalus Summer 2009

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50 Dœdalus Summer 2009

Dœdalus Summer 2009 51

52 Dcedalus Summer 2009

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54 Dœdalus Summer 2009

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nomena in relations between neurotypi- and animal behavior to point it out to

56 Dcedalus Summer 2009

beings from outer space. But in general, makers.

Dœdalus Summer 2009 57

58 Dœdalus Summer 2009

22 Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, 152e.

23 Wolfgang Köhler, Gestalt Psychology (New York: Horace Liveright, 1929).

25 I provide exact citations in "Autistic Autobiography," Philosophical Transactions of the Roy-

26 Köhler, Gestalt Psychology, 250-251.

27 Ibid., 266 - 267 ; emphasis added.

3° See Hacking, "Autistic Autobiography" for examples of this practice.

Dœdalus Summer 2009 59

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