I've started and stopped my own response to this article about a half dozen times, but this post gets to the crux of it very well. I've worked in a research lab

I've started and stopped my own response to this article about a half dozen times, but this post gets to the crux of it very well. I've worked in a research lab studying the neuroscience of autism (via MRI and FMRI, even), and this article is a classic example of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing. The author has taken a bundle of half-understandings about an extraordinarily complex field, and tried to tie them together in to a Unified Theory of Autism, with predictably bad results. I don't really blame the author - it's the most natural thing to do in the world when faced with something like a loved one being diagnosed with autism, and this is far from the first time I've seen it happen - but it's always a little frustrating to see.