Daniel Stolle
In China, it is known as “the lonely disease”. The Japanese term translates as “intentionally shut”. Across the world, there is a perception of autistic people as aloof, socially awkward and isolated, seeming to not only lack the kind of automatic social instinct that enables successful interaction, but also the desire to achieve it. There is also a perception that autistic people tend to be men.
For decades, researchers – myself included – have thought of autism as a predominantly male condition. The more we studied boys and men, the clearer the picture of autism that emerged – or so we thought.
