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Culture, Mind, and Society

Autism in
Translation
An Intercultural
Conversation on Autism
Spectrum Conditions

Edited by
Elizabeth Fein & Clarice Rios
 Culture, Mind, and Society

Series Editor
Peter G. Stromberg
Anthropology Department
Henry Kendall College of Arts and Sciences
University of Tulsa
Tulsa, OK, USA
The Society for Psychological Anthropology—a section of the American
Anthropology Association—and Palgrave Macmillan are dedicated to
publishing innovative research that illuminates the workings of the
human mind within the social, cultural, and political contexts that shape
thought, emotion, and experience. As anthropologists seek to bridge
gaps between ideation and emotion or agency and structure and as psy-
chologists, psychiatrists, and medical anthropologists search for ways to
engage with cultural meaning and difference, this interdisciplinary terrain
is more active than ever.

Editorial Board
Eileen Anderson-Fye, Department of Anthropology, Case Western
Reserve University
Jennifer Cole, Committee on Human Development, University of
Chicago
Linda Garro, Department of Anthropology, University of California,
Los Angeles
Daniel T. Linger, Department of Anthropology, University of California,
Santa Cruz
Rebecca Lester, Department of Anthropology, Washington University
in St. Louis
Tanya Luhrmann, Department of Anthropology, Stanford University
Catherine Lutz, Department of Anthropology, University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill
Peggy Miller, Departments of Psychology and Speech Communication,
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Robert Paul, Department of Anthropology, Emory University
Antonius C. G. M. Robben, Department of Anthropology, Utrecht
University, Netherlands
Bradd Shore, Department of Anthropology, Emory University
Jason Throop, Department of Anthropology, University of California,
Los Angeles
Carol Worthman, Department of Anthropology, Emory University

More information about this series at

http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14947
 Elizabeth Fein · Clarice Rios
Editors

Autism in Translation
An Intercultural Conversation on Autism Spectrum
Conditions
Editors
Elizabeth Fein Clarice Rios
Duquesne University Department of Social Psychology
Pittsburgh, PA, USA Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Culture, Mind, and Society

ISBN 978-3-319-93292-7 ISBN 978-3-319-93293-4 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93293-4

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018946796

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction
on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and
information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication.
Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied,
with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have
been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published
maps and institutional affiliations.

Cover image: © Abhishek S Padmanabhan/Alamy Stock Photo

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 Series Preface

Psychological Anthropologists study a wide spectrum of human activity:

child development, illness and healing, ritual and religion, personality,
political and economic systems, just to name a few. In fact, as a discipline
that seeks to understand the interconnections between persons and cul-
ture, it would be difficult to come up with examples of human behavior
that are outside the purview of psychological anthropology. Yet, beneath
this substantive diversity lies a common commitment. The practitioners
of psychological anthropology seek to understand social activity in ways
that are fitted to the mental and physical dimensions of human beings.
Psychological anthropologists may focus on emotions or human biology,
on language or art or dreams, but they rarely stray far from the attempt
to understand the possibilities and the limitations of on-the-ground
human persons.
In this collection of papers, psychological anthropology is brought to
bear on the complex challenge of autism. The book is unique in a num-
ber of ways. First, the standpoint of the “Global North” is most often
taken for granted in academic work, this in spite of the fact that other
perspectives may considerably enrich our understanding of the phenom-
ena we study. This volume exemplifies something that ought to happen
more often, a collaborative dialogue between the academic perspec-
tives of the north and a robust conceptual system developed elsewhere,
in this case, the South American “Collective Health” tradition. Second,
rather than considering autism as a fixed diagnostic category inscribed
into the structure of the universe, papers in this collection place autism

v
vi    Series Preface

in social and political contexts in order to illustrate variations in the con-

ceptualization of autism and of the treatment and experience of men and
women on the autism spectrum. The result is a volume that is valuable
for both theory and practice, a broadening of our thinking not only
about autism but also about human experience more broadly.

Tulsa, USA Peter G. Stromberg

 Acknowledgements

The editors of this book first met at a meeting of the Society for
Psychological Anthropology. Ever since then, SPA has been a fer-
tile intellectual home for this project. We are therefore honored to be
publishing this book within the SPA series, Culture, Mind and Society.
We’d like to thank Peter Stromberg, Yehuda Goodman, Rachel Daniel,
and Kyra Saniewski for their welcome of this book and their invaluable
help preparing it for publication. We’d also like to thank Derek Hook,
Daniela Manica, and an anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments
on various parts of this manuscript, Benjamin M. Gaddes for editorial
assistance, and Lisa Rivero for a meticulous and conceptually sound
index.
The workshop that produced this book was supported by the
Lemelson/Society for Psychological Anthropology Conference Fund,
made possible by a generous donation from the Robert Lemelson
Foundation. For the past decade, the Foundation has funded meet-
ings organized around innovative topics in psychological anthropol-
ogy, ranging from cross-cultural critiques of attachment theory to the
power of comic books to enhance understandings of medical care. These
workshops have advanced both the theory and practice of psycholog-
ical anthropology, in the kind of new directions that can emerge only
from protected time and space for good conversations and sustained
thought. In supporting an international collaboration that took place
in a country going through significant political and financial upheaval,
the Foundation took on a new set of logistical challenges. We appreciate

vii
viii    Acknowledgements

their willingness to take a chance on this workshop, and we hope this

publication will continue the tradition of excellent work emerging from
this program.
A number of people also helped to make the workshop possible.
Denize Barros contributed the striking design for our workshop mate-
rials. Christine Pollock and the Duquesne University Office of Research
assisted with the handling and disbursement of funds, as did CEPESC
(Centro de Estudos, Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Tecnológico em Saúde
Coletiva) at Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ). After the event was
over, Ted Gideonse made the videos of our conference talks available on
the SPA Vimeo channel. They can be viewed at https://vimeo.com/
album/3897481. Also included there are opening remarks by Kenneth
Camargo Jr., whose introduction to the tradition of Collective Health
helped to place our work in context.
We would also like to thank and acknowledge the diverse audience
that showed up to a public meeting held at UERJ, Rio de Janeiro as part
of our workshop. Among the audience, composed of health and educa-
tion professionals, as well as parents of children with autism, we would
like to particularly thank Iranice Nascimento and Monica Accioly. Iranice
and Monica have been involved with autism activism in Rio de Janeiro
for almost 20 years now. Their hard work and persistence, working with
very limited resources and under very adverse conditions, have been a
great inspiration for us throughout the whole process of organizing the
different events that composed the workshop in Rio.
Finally, our deepest respect and admiration go to all the administrative
staff and professors at UERJ, who supported in various ways the events
that took place at the university. They have been working under contin-
uously deteriorating conditions, for the past year with late salaries, and
yet have kept the university open as place for intellectually and politically
engaging forums. As they often say, these days: UERJ resiste!
 Contents

1 Introduction 1
Elizabeth Fein and Clarice Rios
1.1 Where Did This Book Come From? 1
1.2 The Event 5
1.3 The Volume 8
1.4 Broader Themes 10
References 13

Part I Political Histories of Autism

2 Autism Policy and Advocacy in Brazil and the USA 17

Rossano Cabral Lima, Clara Feldman, Cassandra Evans
and Pamela Block
2.1 Introduction 17
2.2 Twentieth Century Institutionalization in the USA 20
2.3 The Cultural Context of Deinstitutionalization
in the USA 21
2.4 Deinstitutionalization and the Emergence
of the Autism “Crisis” in the USA 24
2.5 “Exceptional Children” and the First Autistic
Associations in Brazil 27
2.6 The Brazilian Psychiatric Reform Movement 29
2.7 The Rise of CAPSi and Its Impact on Autism Care 31

ix
x    Contents

2.8 Tensions and Misunderstandings Involving Parent

Activists, Mental Health and Rehabilitation
Professionals in Brazil 33
2.9 Treatment, Education, and Rights of Autistic
Children in the USA 38
2.10 Conclusion 43
References 46

3 Psychiatric Reform and Autism Services in Italy

and Brazil 53
M. Ariel Cascio, Bárbara Costa Andrada
and Benilton Bezerra Jr.
3.1 Introduction 53
3.2 Methods 55
3.3 Psychiatric Reform in Italy and Brazil 56
3.4 Deinstitutionalization in Italy: Democratic Psychiatry
and Its Legacy of Inclusion 57
3.5 Deinstitutionalization in Brazil: Psychiatric Reform
and Psychoanalysis in the Context of Political
Transformation 59
3.6 Autism and Children’s Mental Health: Challenges
and Changes in PR 61
3.7 Italy: Psychiatry, Democratic Psychiatry,
and Neuropsychiatry 62
3.8 Brazil: Pre-reform Ethos, Special Education
and Post-reform Mental Health Services 65
3.9 Autism Today: Local Controversies in Post-reform
Contexts 68
3.10 Autism Controversies in Brazil: Advocacy, Lived
Experiences and the Paradigm of “Autism as a
Disability” 69
3.11 Italy: Advocacy, Lived Experiences, and the Paradigm
of “Autism as a Way of Being” 72
3.12 Conclusion 77
References 81

4 Commentary: “Why Not Both?” Negotiating Ideas

About Autism in Italy, Brazil, and the US 89
Francisco Ortega
4.1 Introduction: Autism and Global Mental Health 89
 Contents    xi

4.2 Autism as “Problematic Category” 91

4.3 Mobilizing Diagnostic Categories to Pragmatic Ends 93
4.4 Beyond the Organicism/Anti-organicism Divide 99
4.5 Conclusion 101
References 103

Part II Voice, Narrative and Representation

5 Music and Autism, Representation and Re-presentation:

An Ethnomusicological Perspective 109
Michael B. Bakan
5.1 Autism Spectrum Conditions and Neurodiversity 110
5.2 Autism and Ethnomusicology, Then and Now 111
5.3 Gordon Peterson, in His Own Words 116
5.4 Concluding Thoughts 119
References 126

6 Autism as a Mode of Engagement 129

Elizabeth Fein
6.1 What Do I Study When I Study Autism? 129
6.2 Trains Just Got Swept Away by These Dynamic Animals 133
6.3 The Numbers Do Not Lie, They Tell a Story 136
6.4 He Will Come Out with Something from
TV to Give Him the Words 138
6.5 That Was from Something 142
6.6 My Child Is a Toxic Waste Dump 146
References 151

7 Autism and First-Person Accounts: The Cognitive

Problem 155
Jurandir Freire Costa and Roy Richard Grinker
7.1 Introduction 155
7.2 Meanings of Autistic Experience 157
7.3 Cognitive Performance 159
7.4 Fragments of Accounts 161
7.4.1 Attfield 161
7.4.2 Mukhopadhyay 161
xii    Contents

7.4.3 Fleischmann 162

7.4.4 Tammet 163
7.4.5 Higashida 164
7.4.6 Blackman 165
7.4.7 Mukhopadhyay and Barron 166
7.4.8 Shore 168
7.4.9 Barron 168
7.5 Cognition Revisited 169
References 173

8 Commentary: Words, Voice, Silence 175

Laura Sterponi
8.1 Words 175
8.2 Voice 178
8.3 Silence 179
References 181

Part III The Autism Concept

9 Expert on Your Own Child, Expert on Your Own

World—Reinventing Autism Expertise(s) 185
Clarice Rios
9.1 Introduction 185
9.2 The Research 187
9.3 From “Specialized Treatment” to Autism Expertise 188
9.4 Expertise in Context: Who Is an Expert After All? 192
9.5 Experts in What? Raising A(n Autistic) Child
in Rio de Janeiro 197
9.6 A Context Sensitive Model of Autism Expertise 200
References 205

10 A.S.: Classification, Interpellation 207

Enrico Valtellina
10.1 Introduction 207
10.2 The Diagnosis 208
10.3 The Diagnosis as Classification 209
10.4 Aspergers Syndrome/AS 212
10.5 Diagnosis as Event 216
 Contents    xiii

10.6 “Hey, You There!” Ideology Interpellates Individuals

as Subjects 220
References 226

11 Who Owns Autism? Economics, Fetishism,

and Stakeholders 231
Roy Richard Grinker
11.1 Introduction 231
11.2 Prevalence and the Growth of Expertise 233
11.3 Fetishism 239
11.4 Conclusion 245
References 247

12 Commentary: What Are We Talking About When We

Talk About Autism? 251
M. Ariel Cascio
12.1 A Cultural Constructivist View of Autism 251
12.2 The Autism Concept 253
12.3 Exploring Classic Anthropological Questions 254
References 259

Part IV Closing Commentaries

13 Psychological Anthropology and the Study of Disability 263

Thomas S. Weisner
13.1 Introduction 263
13.2 Difference Due to Disability Is Biological and Social 264
13.3 The Experiences of Disability Matter 266
13.4 Cultural Beliefs and Practices Regarding
Disability Vary Widely Around the World 268
13.5 Social and Sociolinguistic Mechanisms Important
for Understanding ASD and Other Disability also
Are Important for Studying Many Other Topics in
Psychological Anthropology 271
13.6 Family and Parenting in Response to Disability and
Mental Illness Matter for Development: The Daily
xiv    Contents

Routine and the Power of Activities and Institutional

and Structural Conditions 273
13.7 Final Comments 279
References 279

14 Joy 283
Dawn Prince-Hughes

Index 291
 Notes on Contributors

Michael B. Bakan, Ph.D. is Professor of Ethnomusicology at Florida

State University. Dr. Bakan’s research explores the musical lives of autis-
tic individuals as composers, performers, and engaged listeners. He has
published widely on Indonesian gamelan music and has performed as a
percussionist with renowned musical artists including George Clinton,
John Cage, and Tito Puente.
Benilton Bezerra Jr., M.D., Ph.D. is Associate Professor at the
Institute for Social Medicine, State University of Rio de Janeiro. Dr.
Bezerra is a psychoanalytic psychiatrist who played a key role in Brazilian
psychiatric reform. His current research focuses on contemporary recon-
figurations of psychiatric diagnosis and their impact on subjectivity and
identity.
Pamela Block, Ph.D. is Professor and Director of the Concentration in
Disability Studies for the Ph.D. Program in Health and Rehabilitation
Sciences at Stony Brook University and the Graduate Certificate in
Disability Studies. She is also a former President of the Society for
Disability Studies (2009–2010), and a Fellow of the Society for Applied
Anthropology. Dr. Block studies multiple marginalization and the inter-
sections of gender, race, poverty, and disability in Brazil and the United
States.
M. Ariel Cascio, Ph.D. is a cultural anthropologist who studies sci-
ence and medicine, and especially the social study of autism. Their work

xv
xvi    Notes on Contributors

has been funded by the US–Italy Fulbright Commission and the

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada’s Banting
Fellowship Program. They are currently a postdoctoral fellow at the
Neuroethics Research Unit of the Institut de recherches cliniques de
Montréal (Québec, Canada), and the data referenced in this book come
from their doctoral work at Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland,
OH, USA).
Jurandir Freire Costa, M.D. is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and Full
Professor at the Institute for Social Medicine of the State University of
Rio de Janeiro. He has written on historical and contemporary topics
related to the connections between subjectivity and society and psychoa-
nalysis and culture.
Bárbara Costa Andrada, Ph.D. is a researcher at the Center for
Research in Mental Health Public Policies at the Institute of Psychiatry,
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. She is a psychotherapist and Ph.D.
in Collective Health, and researches the intersections between mental
health public policies, disability rights, and autism.
Cassandra Evans, Ph.D. is an Adjunct Lecturer in Health and
Rehabilitation Science, Stony Brook University and Adjunct Philosophy
Instructor, Molloy and St. Jospeh’s and Suffolk Community colleges.
Cassandra is a disability studies scholar with backgrounds in philosophy
and rehabilitation counseling who analyzes mental health systems and
interventions for individuals with persistent mental disabilities in the
United States.
Elizabeth Fein, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor, Department of
Psychology, Duquesne University. Dr. Fein is a psychological anthropol-
ogist and licensed clinical psychologist who uses clinical ethnography to
explore the intersections of culture and neurodevelopmental difference.
Clara Feldman is a Ph.D. student, Institute for Social Medicine, State
University of Rio de Janeiro. She is a psychotherapist whose research
looks at autism in the Brazilian public mental health care system.
Roy Richard Grinker, Ph.D. is Professor of Anthropology, George
Washington University. Dr. Grinker has published extensively on the
manifestation and treatment of autism across diverse cultures.
 Notes on Contributors    xvii

Rossano Cabral Lima, M.D., Ph.D. is Associate Professor at the

Institute for Social Medicine, State University of Rio de Janeiro. A child
and adolescent psychiatrist, Lima is a co-author of the national guidelines
for autism treatment in the mental health system of Brazil.
Francisco Ortega, Ph.D. is Full Professor at the Institute for Social
Medicine of the State University of Rio de Janeiro and Research Director
of the Rio Center for Global Health. He has published, among other
books, Corporeality, Medical Technologies and Contemporary Culture
(London: Rutledge, 2014) and with Fernando Vidal, Being Brains:
Making the Cerebral Subject (New York, Fordham University Press, 2017).
Dawn Prince-Hughes, Ph.D. is the author of seven books including
the national best-seller Songs of the Gorilla Nation: My Journey Through
Autism and has been nominated for a MacArthur Fellowship. Her
accounts of her life on the autism spectrum explore issues of commonal-
ity and difference both within and across primate species.
Clarice Rios, Ph.D. is Lecturer at the Social Psychology Department
of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). She is a psycholog-
ical anthropologist whose current research explores the biopolitics of
autism treatment within the Brazilian Unified Health System. She is also
interested in embodied and tacit knowledge in the context of lay autism
expertise.
Laura Sterponi, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Language, Literacy
and Culture, University of California Berkeley, Graduate School of
Education. Dr. Sterponi brings together developmental psychology and
applied linguistics to study the sociocultural underpinnings of learning
through ethnographic and discourse analytic methods. Her current work
focuses on the interactional affordances of language practices such as for-
mulaic language and reported speech in autism spectrum conditions.
Enrico Valtellina, Ph.D. collaborates with the University of Bergamo,
Italy. The author of multiple works on Disability Studies, History of
Psychiatry, and other philosophical and literary topics, he has increasingly
focused his work on relational disability since realizing that he is lost
somewhere on the autism spectrum.
Thomas S. Weisner, Ph.D. is Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus,
Departments of Psychiatry and Anthropology at UCLA. Dr. Weisner’s
xviii    Notes on Contributors

research and teaching interests are in culture and human development;

ecocultural theory and methods; medical, psychological and cultural
studies of families and children at risk (including children and adults with
developmental disabilities, ADHD, and autism); mixed methods; and
evidence-informed policy. His publications and further information are
available at www.tweisner.com.
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Elizabeth Fein and Clarice Rios

1.1  Where Did This Book Come From?

All knowledge emerges from a network of somewheres. Its production is
bound up in particular histories of particular people, who bring distinc-
tive sets of pragmatic arts to the balance of their resources and vulnera-
bilities. This book is no exception. The editors of this volume, who are
also the instigators of the workshop from which it emerged, first met at
the Society for Psychological Anthropology biannual conference in San
Diego in 2013. Both of us were working on autism in cultural context,
and both of us were at transition points in our own professional lives,
facing uncertain futures. Clarice, who had trained as an anthropologist
at the University of Chicago and UCLA, was completing a postdoctoral
fellowship at the Research Program in Subjectivity, Health and Medicine
at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, amidst psychoanalysts and phi-
losophers studying the impact of psychiatric knowledge and discourse
on the formation of subjectivities. Elizabeth had just completed training
in clinical psychology and anthropology at the University of Chicago’s

E. Fein (*)
Department of Psychology, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
C. Rios
Department of Social Psychology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro,
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

© The Author(s) 2018 1

E. Fein and C. Rios (eds.), Autism in Translation, Culture, Mind,
and Society, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93293-4_1
2 E. FEIN AND C. RIOS

interdisciplinary Department of Comparative Human Development;

a year later, she would take a position in Psychology at Duquesne
University, a department advocating for a culturally and historically sit-
uated, meaning-centered psychology grounded in traditions of phe-
nomenological philosophy. We felt a synergy, not only between our own
interests but also between the communities we inhabited and the intel-
lectual currents and eddies swirling within their flows and obstructions.
In response to both the opportunities and uncertainties before us, we
decided we needed to make something. Over the following year, we met
via video-conferencing each week to discuss what its parameters might
be. Out of those conversations, the plan for the conference that would
produce this volume was born.
As our ideas coalesced, our aim became to create an event that would
place into dialogue two intellectual traditions: psychological anthropol-
ogy and the South American tradition of Collective Health. These fields
have multiple points of commonality with manifold implications for
autism. Both take as their subject the complex interplay of individuals
and their sociocultural contexts; both have developed theoretical and
methodological tools to connect the levels of analysis that are frequently
divided in debates about autism and issues of global health more broadly.
However, due to differences and distances in language and geography,
these two fields had not experienced much cross-pollination. Our hope
was to start a conversation between them.
Encompassing the fields of social science, epidemiology, and health
policy, Collective Health takes a social and political approach to the
study of health and disease, working to articulate and propagate a model
of health that is “socially established through intersubjective pacts within
economic, social and cultural contexts” (ABRASCO 2004, in Ivo de
Carvalho et al. 2007, 10). Collective Health possesses a distinct episte-
mological ethos characterized by a careful attention to the relationships
between the individual and the state, especially around contested politics
of health, and a deep grounding in the lived realities of service provi-
sion (Langdon and Follér 2012). Similarly, psychological anthropology
has a long history of examining the interaction between psyche and soci-
ocultural life, in all the particularities of each. As Tom Weisner explores
in his contribution to this volume, psychological anthropology engages
with the daily life experience of individuals, families, and communities,
developing conceptual tools for both identifying and working across lev-
els of analysis. We were particularly aware of “the position of psycholog-
ical anthropology to engage in bridging research, practice, and policy,”
 1 INTRODUCTION 3

especially when put into conversation with other disciplines and domains
of practice (Korbin and Anderson-Fye 2011, 415).
As a phenomenon with irreducibly individual and interpersonal instan-
tiations, possessing both robust similarities and intriguing differences
across contexts, autism serves as a powerful point of departure from
which to consider questions at the intersection of these two fields. How
do individual differences that exceed or transcend local norms get con-
ceptualized, diagnosed, and treated within different societies with differ-
ent medical infrastructures and expectations for social relations? How do
diverse processes of socialization affect the cross-cultural manifestation
of individual differences? How do relationships between the individual,
the community, and the state shape political claims about disability, bio-
social identity, and public health? How do individuals living under such
descriptions understand their condition and themselves? Dis/ability is
inextricably linked to the relationship between self and society (Ingstad
and Whyte 1995); the power of autism to destabilize and reinscribe
assumptions about sociality, intersubjectivity, and communication refracts
these issues in disruptive and potentially generative ways.
In order for anthropological theory to effectively address these ques-
tions, we felt, its development needs to be driven by the inclusion of
paradigms from outside the global North. However, the dominance of
English as a scholarly language, the scarcity of resources within academic
environments in low- and middle-income countries, and the challenges
of speaking across deep-seated and long-standing ontological and epis-
temological differences all contribute to the marginalization of South
American intellectual traditions within supposedly globalized discourses.
In particular, as we observed the increasing influence of work in the
field of Global Mental Health (GMH), we were becoming increasingly
concerned about the dominance of Northern perspectives and priorities
within this growing field and its interventions. One aim of this event was
to begin, in some small way, to destabilize this dominance.
A core premise of this event has always been that the contexts of
knowledge production matter. Physical spaces and arrangements, insti-
tutional infrastructures, status hierarchies, and their impact on spatial
position, the sheer distance that a voice can carry, when amplified (or
not) through one technology or another—all of these things constitute
a matrix through which ideas are born and through which they rise and
fall. It felt important to us to come together in a physical way, to be in
each other’s presence in an intentionally chosen location. We opted to
4 E. FEIN AND C. RIOS

locate the conference at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, taking

advantage of the rich theoretical and philosophical approaches thriving
within the Research Program in Subjectivity, Health, and Medicine while
addressing an identified need within the program for training in ethno-
graphic research methods. Countering the trend for South American
intellectuals to train abroad and study literatures that may not be attuned
to the needs and questions most relevant to the South American context,
we hoped instead to introduce methodological tools that could be effec-
tively adapted to address issues related to the organization of health and
of governance unique to the Brazilian context.
We hoped, especially, to counter tendencies within Global Mental
Health to depict the Global South as a place of lack, in need of rescue
through Northern intervention. As Khan et al. (2012) observe, “[i]t is
critical to note that the landscape of supportive interventions in LIMCs
[low-to-middle-income countries] has not been void of alternative
approaches to those developed in high-income countries, and that these
approaches provide equally viable targets for research” (157); however,
these approaches are often overlooked within discourses that focus on
the absence of appropriate services. We sought to explore the wide range
of understandings and practices already in place for addressing autism
spectrum conditions and other developmental differences. In doing so,
we follow Whitley’s (2014, 501) call to offer “no opposition without
proposition”: a call to counter-balance critique of mental health inter-
ventions with an exploration of possible solutions to the problematics
thus posed.
In planning the event, we made a conscious decision to prioritize
depth of representation over maximizing geographic diversity. We could
have opted to hold a “cross-cultural” conference in which we sought
scholars from as many different countries as possible. (One agency denied
our application for funding on the grounds that we had not done so).
Instead, rather than attempting to seek “thin” representation from the
widest variety of places and perspectives, we focused instead on establish-
ing a “thick” and in-depth dialogue between two scholarly traditions that
were each located within particular geopolitical and historical contexts.
In selecting our participants, however, psychological anthropology
and Collective Health provided guiding principles rather than constraints
upon acceptable disciplinary identities. We approached people whose
work explored autism situated in particular contexts, whether those con-
texts be geographic, aesthetic, or linguistic. We sought scholars who
 1 INTRODUCTION 5

were themselves positioned with regard to autism in a variety of ways:

scholars who are themselves on the autism spectrum; scholars who have
family members, partners, and friends on the autism spectrum; schol-
ars who have worked with people on the spectrum in clinical contexts,
and those who have worked with people on the spectrum in artistic and
academic collaborations. All participants, in their work, address autism
across levels of analysis, from individual development to global dis-
courses, with a focus on the particular cultural and material contexts in
which each of these phenomena manifests.
We were very fortunate to receive funding from the Lemelson/
Society for Psychological Anthropology Conference Fund. Since 2008,
this program has funded a number of small conferences and workshops
that allow in-depth work on innovative and significant topics in psy-
chological anthropology. Through the generosity of this program, we
were able to fly eleven conference participants to Rio de Janeiro, hold
the conference, and present our work to the public on the final day of
the conference, via a complex assemblage of translators and audiovisual
equipment.

1.2  The Event
Once our funding had been confirmed, we sent official invitations to the
community of scholars with whom we had been planning the event.1
Each participant was asked to prepare a twenty-minute presentation, and
invited to consider the following questions:
Conceptual framework: What do you understand yourself to be looking
at, or looking for, or looking through, in your work? How do you define
terms like “autism” and “culture” in your own work? What models of
person, society, and the relationship between them inform your work?
Method: How do you go about finding out what you find out, and how
does that affect what you find? What research paradigms do you use in
your investigations? What challenges have you run into and how did you
address those challenges?
Findings: What have you found out about autism, its social, cultural,
and political contexts, and the relationship between the two?
Each presenter was also assigned a discussant, and some time for dis-
cussion of their work, adding up to about an hour in total. The end of
6 E. FEIN AND C. RIOS

each day was capped with a summative discussion, the goal of which
was to identify and track emergent themes. The entirety of the confer-
ence was filmed, and the videos are available to view at the Society for
Psychological Anthropology Vimeo channel. These recordings became
an important part of the workshop methodology, as it allowed us both to
make the event available to a wider audience and also to revisit particu-
larly thought-provoking moments as we were preparing this volume.
Over four days of paper presentations, lively discussions, and an out-
reach event to the broader scholarly and clinical community of Rio de
Janeiro, we grappled with our own differences in position and perspec-
tive, struggling over language barriers, unfamiliar sets of assumptions, jet
lag, and the human tendency to cling to the familiar when disoriented.
We were all, on some level, differently abled at this event than we were
accustomed to being, whether this was because we were working in a
foreign location, as was the case for the visiting North American schol-
ars, or working in a non-native language, as was the case for the hosting
scholars. In working through our own understandings and misunder-
standings of each other, we generated new understandings: of the rela-
tionship between political systems, cultural models of self and social life,
and individual lived experience. We did more than talk, and listen, trying
desperately to fit everything we wanted to say into the number of hours
we had allotted; we guided each other through explorations of the Rio
streets at night, we danced to samba music together and shared meals
and long walks through gardens heavy with branches. We took a trip to
the Museum of Images of the Unconscious, founded by the pioneering
Jungian psychiatrist Nise da Silveira and honoring her rejection of prim-
itive electroshock and lobotomy in favor of expressive art therapies. We
climbed the winding stairs of the Hotel e Spa da Loucura (Hotel and Spa
of Madness), adorned with elaborate graffiti murals, where clients experi-
ment with art, music, and theater as means of symbolic healing.
The final day of the conference ended with a meeting to discuss the
form this publication would take. From the beginning, we agreed that
we wanted to produce a publication that would capture some elements
of the experience we had just shared. Particularly, we wanted to pre-
serve both its dialogic character and its element of surprise. As we talked,
we threw words and phrases up on a white board, trying to characterize
where we’d been and where we hoped to go: Community. Decentering.
Representation of togetherness. Collision. Conflict. Psychic connection.
 1 INTRODUCTION 7

Synergy. Dequotative. Voices. Ways of caring, knowing, speaking, seeing,

being, being uncomfortable. Close to nature. Committed Fair Witness.
Institutionalization. Price. Access. Things that really bother people (some
but not all of which are labels). Holding hands. Effort of defining terms.
Territories. Knowledges. Experiences. And some memorable phrases from
the event: I’d like to sleep on a bed of your voice and your ideas. There’s a say-
ing: keep one eye on the cat and one eye on the fish. Who owns autism? Maybe
autism owns us.
On that last day, we also held a meeting open to the public, attended
by about 150 mental health practitioners, scholars, educators, and advo-
cates from Rio de Janeiro and beyond. We presented, we took questions.
But the most memorable moments came when we moved outside of our
prepared words piped through translation headphones. Clarice offered
an impassioned, extemporaneous call for Brazilian scholars and practi-
tioners to embrace their/our own expertise even while enthusiastically
embracing approaches from abroad. Michael B. Bakan shared his gift of
rhythm with us in a collective drumming exercise. Dawn Prince-Hughes
got us up out of our chairs—the whole hall full of us—swinging our
arms, opening up our mouths and faces, and experimenting with how it
felt to move and communicate like gorillas.
It is impossible to relate to your colleagues in quite the same way after
sharing such an experience. In a sense, this workshop instantiated what
Callard and Fitzgerald have memorably described as “a delicate, diffi-
cult, transgressive, risky, playful, and genuinely experimental interdisci-
plinarity” (2015, 4), in which “experimental theatre and experimental
poetry promise as much—in terms of methods, knowledges, modes of
construing, and intervening in the world—as the rich legacy of experi-
mentation in the natural sciences” (ibid., 9). Our intent in bringing these
participants together into a shared physical space shares something with
their call to create a “temporary, local assemblage of motivation, inter-
est, people and machinery—in which we, and our collaborators, are able
momentarily to think something exterior to both the conventions of
experimental practice, and the taken-for-granted dynamics of epistemic
power that underwrite its conduct” (Fitzgerald and Callard 2015, 18).
We built good bones for the event—a schedule, guiding questions, a
strong mission; but at heart, our goal was to bring some people together
in a place and see what happened. This book is our attempt to show you
what emerged.
8 E. FEIN AND C. RIOS

1.3  The Volume
The volume aims to capture the unique nature of this inter-cultural con-
versation, as well as to carry it forward. We invited participants to form
international teams and work together on collaborative pieces, and did
our best to set up groups of chapters and commentators that spanned
across both geographic and disciplinary territories. The volume itself
is structured as a continuing conversation: it contains individual stand-
alone pieces that can be read in isolation; however, each section also con-
tains a response piece from a discussant, synthesizing the themes of that
section, and the volume also contains two commentaries by participants
on the event as a whole.
The first section of the volume, “Political Histories of Autism”
consists of two comparative, collaborative essays examining autism
and neurodiversity in the context of psychiatric reform movements
in the US, Italy, and Brazil. Rossano Cabral Lima, Clara Feldman,
Cassandra Evans, and Pamela Block draw on their many years of stud-
ying autism and disability in the United States and Brazil to chronicle
post-deinstitutionalization efforts to advocate for the recognition of
the full humanity and personhood of autistic people. In both coun-
tries, schisms have formed between groups that share this common
goal. This chapter compares how these tensions have taken form within
the United States and Brazil, in the context of each country’s particu-
lar and “radically different political and economic histories, health sys-
tems, conceptions of health, and ideals about the relationship between
individuals and the state” (Lima et al., this volume). M. Ariel Cascio,
Bárbara Costa Andrada, and Benilton Bezerra Jr. also take up the ques-
tion of psychiatric reform—this time in Italy and Brazil—looking at how
the biologically based and diagnosis-specific approaches once rejected
by psychiatric reformers are now embraced by a new wave of critics to
post-reform policies. In his discussant remarks, Francisco Ortega exam-
ines the presence of polarizing conflicts throughout these two compar-
ative case studies, observing how families within these systems model
pragmatic practices of integration.
The second section of the volume focuses on issues of “Voice, Narrative
and Representation.” The section begins with Michael B. Bakan exploration
of the question: what does it mean to be an ethnomusicologist of autism?
The piece calls for, and exemplifies, a form of appreciative listening, sur-
rounding and foregrounding an essay written by a musician diagnosed with
 1 INTRODUCTION 9

Syndrome. Elizabeth Fein tells a series of stories—about three young men

diagnosed with autism spectrum conditions, about her experience getting
trained on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, and about con-
ferences where autism is attributed to environmental contamination—to
explore the possibility of understanding autism as a mode of engagement
with the world, characterized by a deep involvement with external systems
of organization. Jurandir Freire Costa and Roy Richard Grinker collaborate
on an essay that brings phenomenology and philosophy of mind to an anal-
ysis of first-person accounts of autism, approaching the issue of cognition
and rationality from the perspectives offered in these accounts as a way of
challenging claims about the nature of autistic cognitive impairment. Laura
Sterponi’s discussion identifies two strategies she sees in these essays, which
she calls denotational layering and non-referential signification, as ways to
“engage with the silence and interrogate the unspeakable” (Sterponi, this
volume).
The third and final section focuses on the concept of autism and
how it organizes both individual lives and social and economic systems.
Clarice Rios provides an ethnographic account of the Brazilian parent
association she calls Círculo da Esperança (Circle of Hope). Participants
in the program develop a form of autism expertise that bridges special-
ized knowledge of autism that comes from abroad with their locally
developed and situated ability to translate the tacit knowledge of their
own social worlds to their autistic children. Philosopher and historian
of science Enrico Valtellina provides a witty and incisive analysis of the
diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome as both a classification and an event,
drawing on Althusser’s notion of interpellation to narrate his own
changing relationship with the diagnosis. Roy Richard Grinker argues
that the economic power of autism can be understood through the fig-
ure of the fetish—a sacred object set apart. In the discussant remarks
that conclude the section, M. Ariel Cascio links the many meanings of
autism to classic anthropological questions, exploring implications of
“the autism concept” for debates on normality and abnormality, mind
and body, socialization and enculturation, political economy, and social
organization.
The volume closes with two sets of reflections by participants.
Thomas Weisner shares insights from a long career at the intersection
of psychological anthropology and the study of disability, tracing con-
nections between autism and the core concerns of psychological anthro-
pology: difference as both biological and social, the centralities of lived
10 E. FEIN AND C. RIOS

experience, the intersection of vulnerabilities, the complexities of social

and linguistic competence, the importance of daily routines for organiz-
ing family and community life, and the historical and institutional forces
that structure all these things. Dawn Prince-Hughes closes out the vol-
ume with her lyrical and gently humorous meditations on the immediacy
and messy power of connection between living beings.

1.4  Broader Themes
The goal of this volume is to contextualize autism within a range of
socio-political contexts, by illuminating the historical, cultural and eco-
nomic circumstances that lead to particular conceptualizations of autism
and exploring the impact of these conceptualizations on the daily lives
of those affected. The papers in this volume thus move beyond what
Solomon and Bagatell (2010) have criticized as a tendency toward
“less and less attention in autism research to phenomena that cannot
be studied at the neurobiological or molecular level, such as human
experience, social interaction, and cross-cultural variation,” (2) instead
examining autism in the context of politics, economics, aesthetics, and
citizenship. Pieces in this volume critically interrogate the construction
of autism as both a subjective and objective category, while seeking to
remain grounded in the lived experience of people for whom this cate-
gory organizes access to much-needed services, and/or provides a deeply
meaningful way to make sense of life experiences. We attend to the his-
torical, economic, and socio-political conditions that hinder or foster
such experiences. In doing so, we seek to elucidate some of the com-
plex and contingent ties between arenas too often oversimplified as “the
global” and “the local” (Bemme and D’souza 2014). Authors in this
volume engage with the ways in which autism spectrum conditions—
of all sorts, including the conditions under which autism can emerge
as a coherent category—travel through different borders and contexts.
They grapple with education and public health structures, self-advocacy
and parent activism, the entanglement between experience and psychi-
atric knowledge/expertise, and the various forms of re-presentation and
authorship afforded by these conditions.
At the heart of all of these processes is the ongoing work of meaning-
making, and the works in this volume all engage with the question of
meaning and its negotiations across a wide variety of contexts. The chap-
ters by Cascio et al. and Lima et al. compare culturally and historically
Another random document with
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"No fear of that, sir," replied Trulock grimly.

Mr. Cloudesley found that the aged cab which was maintained at the
little hospital in High Fairford was fortunately at home, and so without
loss of time the two Garlands were carried off to Lady Mabel's Rest. The
crowd seemed rather disappointed when the children appeared at the
door, apparently uninjured; but the truth was now be coming generally
known, and there was great excitement in the town. One woman was
heard by Mr. Cloudesley to say with great solemnity,—

"And I bought a loaf from her only a week ago—think of that now, and
there she lies dead now!"

Mr. Cloudesley failed to see how the purchase of that particular loaf
affected the matter one way or the other, but he was very glad that he
had not allowed his pretty May to enter the house.

CHAPTER IX.
RALPH'S LETTER.

BY the time the cab reached Lady Mabel's Rest, Ruth Garland had quite
regained both her senses and her self-command. She was even ready
to lift Ollie out of the cab, but this Mr. Cloudesley would not allow her to
do.

"Why, Ruth," he said, "the boy is nearly as big as yourself; but you're an
ambitious little party, and think you can do everything. I'll whisk him into
the house before he can say Jack Robinson."

"But why should I say Jack Robinson?" inquired Ollie, laughing.

"Little boy," said Mr. Cloudesley, setting him gently on his feet in the hall,
"your education has been dreadfully neglected! You are seven years old,
and you never heard of Jack Robinson!"

"No, sir; is he in English history, or in Roman? No, he can't be in Roman

history; I suppose I have not come to him yet."

"Let me know what you think of him when you do," said Mr. Cloudesley.
"Now I must take the old cab back to the hospital; so good-bye, all of
you. Mr. Trulock, don't let Ruth sit up late to-night. Indeed, I am not sure
that I would not send her to bed, as well as Master Curlypate here."

Ollie was soon disposed of, Ruth contriving a comfortable bed for him by
the help of sundry pillows and a big chair cushion. Then the question
arose, where was a bed for poor Ruth herself?

However, Ralph bethought himself of kind Miss Jones, and never

remembered, in his anxiety to make Ruth comfortable, that he was
actually asking a favour of his neighbour! Miss Jones was delighted to
be appealed to, and lent everything that was wanted. She begged Ralph
to allow her to provide a nice meal for the two children that afternoon,
that he might have nothing to do but to take care of Ruth. Ollie was soon
fast asleep, and then it was that Ruth told her story. Ralph was rather
unwilling to let her speak of it at all, but she declared she should feel
better when she had told him.

"Poor Mrs. Cricklade!" she said; "you don't know what a kind-hearted
woman she was. When we first came to Fairford, she took so much
trouble about us, and let us live there rent-free. But when she found that
you were helping us, she began to drink again; she had never quite left
it off, but she only drank on Sunday, or quite late at night for some time;
now she began to drink much more. She made me pay rent, and yet
more than once she gave me back the shilling, and said, 'It's not me,
Ruthie, it's the devil that has possession of me that makes me take your
hard-earned shilling.' That was after she found out that you didn't pay
the rent for me."

"But I never knew that you paid rent, Ruth."

"No," she said, colouring. "You did too much for us already. But though
she gave me back the shilling, she generally came for it again at night,
and was so noisy and angry that she frightened me very much. Then
Ollie got ill, you know; and I pawned poor father's clothes to keep us
until I could get work again."

"But, Ruth, you had money laid by, dear," interrupted Ralph anxiously.

Ruth grew crimson, and tried to answer carelessly. "Very little of it was
left: the rent came out of it, and—other things."

"That wine for me," groaned Ralph, "and I never paid you. Oh, Ruth, you
ought to have told me."

"How could I, sir? you had been ill, you are nearly as poor as I am, and
you had given us so much help. I knew you had not the money, and that
you would pay me when you had it."

"I had plenty, dear child. Oh, I have been a fool! Never mind, Ruth, finish
your story now, and I can explain some other time."

"Well, you know the man could only give me a very little for father's
clothes, because of the risk of infection. I got five shillings the first day;
then I got three for other things. But after that, Ollie was so poorly that I
did not like to leave him, and I asked Mrs. Cricklade to go for me; and,
poor thing, she never would have done this if she had been quite
herself, but she came home quite tipsy, and told me she had lost all the
money except one shilling. And I had no coal left! I was so vexed that I
said, Oh, Mrs. Cricklade, you will not keep it from me! Do give me my
money, please.' But she was terribly angry, and she struck me and drove
me upstairs before her. I had to bolt our door to keep her out; and she
stood on the landing-place for ever so long, calling to me that I had
accused her of stealing. And after all, perhaps I was mistaken, and she
had really lost it. That was yesterday."

"Yes, and you had no fire, and it was a bitter night."

"I had no fire and no food, for I was afraid to go down again. But Ollie
was beginning to get well, you know; and this morning he said he was
hungry. I knew he ought to get food, so I ventured down. I had no water
left besides, and I thought she would be in bed, because it was very
early, quite dark still. I found the place all shut-up, and though I looked
about I could see no food of any kind (I knew she would not mind if I
borrowed from her for Ollie); so I went up again and coaxed Ollie to wait
until it was light. I thought that if I found the poor thing was not yet quite
recovered, I should not be so much afraid if it were light and people
were moving about, because I could call from the window."

"I think we both fell asleep, and when we awoke it was quite light, and I
ventured down again. I went to her door and knocked again and again,
but there was no answer. Then I went in, and she was asleep, I thought.
I spoke to her, shouted to her, but she never stirred; so I was frightened,
and was going away, when it struck me that she was very, very still. I
went back and took her hand. Oh, Mr. Trulock, it was so cold! I ran
upstairs to Ollie then; I was so frightened I did not know what I was
doing. And the next thing I knew was that you were giving me water.
How did you come there?"

"I should have come to see you before, my dear, only I had another
sharpish turn,—not so bad as the first, but I was afraid to be out, and I
little knew how things were with you. When I did get so far, I found the
place all shut-up. We had to get help to open it; and it was well that I
was able to go that morning, for—there's a knock. No, dear, don't you
stir. It is Miss Jones, I'm sure, and I'll let her in."

Ralph was so sure that the person who knocked was Miss Jones, that
he opened his door wide, standing aside to let her pass in with the
expected tray; and the visitor did pass in, but there was no tray, and, to
his horror, it was Mrs. Short! Taking advantage of his mistake, she
waddled up the little hall as fast as her rapidly increasing size would
permit, and was actually in the little parlour before Ralph had recovered
his senses. He rushed after her, and found her embracing Ruth with
every appearance of affection.

"You poor, unfortunate, ill-used child!" she panted out. "To think that to-
day, of all the days in the year, I should have gone to Derby to buy a
warm shawl; for as to choice of colours, there's no such thing at Price's,
but dum-ducketty-mud colour and greys, that looks like poorhouse folk.
My 'art bleeds for you, Ruth Golong. I'm that good-natured, I never could
bear malice. I know you behaved rude-like when you turned me out, as
one may say, when Mr. Trulock was so bad. But truly he was over the
worst of it by that time, and so it did him no harm getting a
unexperienced nuss instead of me. But there, I forgive and forget, Ruth,
my dear. I'm full of sympathy with you. And now tell me all about it. I'm
told the wicked old creetur beat you and half killed Ollie, and then killed
herself a-purpose; is that true, child? Is it true, Ruth Golong? Can't you
speak, child?"

"Ruth," said Ralph, "I think this noise may waken Ollie; you'd better go
and have a look at him."

"Mrs. Short," continued Ralph, "there will be an inquest to-morrow, and

Ruth will be the principal witness. So she must not be talked to about
the matter now. And Ollie has the measles, ma'am; did you ever have
them?"

"Oh yes, when I was a little gel."

"I've known several people have them a second time," remarked Ralph
thoughtfully; "and they go hard with people of a full habit, and not so
young as they have been."

Mrs. Short grew red with fear and anger mixed. "Good evening," said
she, "and I only hope you won't take 'em yourself, Mr. Trulock; for full
habit or no full habit, you're little or no better than a walking skelington,
and can't have it in you to throw out a rash handsome."

With this cutting remark she tossed her head and left the house, Ralph
laughing to himself as she disappeared. Before he could call Ruth down
again, Miss Jones and her tray made their appearance, and Ruth was
kissed and fed and put to bed, with the utmost tenderness, to a running
accompaniment of scolding that was wonderful to listen to.

The inquest took place next day. Ralph took Ruth to the house, and
Miss Jones sat with Ollie during their absence. Ruth's evidence was
given with such modest self-possession, and was so clear and plain,
that it did not matter that no one else could give any evidence at all,
except to the fact that the woman was dead. The verdict was "Died of
alcoholic poisoning;" and then the inquest was over, and nothing
remained but for the parish authorities to bury the poor remains of one
who had once been a kind-hearted, honest, hard-working woman. Ruth
had spoken so gratefully of her kindness, that the memory of a time
when Mrs. Cricklade was a pleasant neighbour was revived among the
listeners, and one woman said, as they all watched the funeral going up
the hill next morning,—

"Poor soul! She was a good creetur, for sure,—a kind body; no fault but
the drink."

"Ah, Mrs. Jeffars," said Miss Jones, who had been collecting Ruth's few
possessions, and was now at the door, "there's the misfortune. That one
fault swallows up all the good qualities one may happen to have. She
was a kind woman, as you say, and yet she took rent from that poor
child, and struck and abused her more than once. And she was an
honest woman too, and yet you see she took the child's money that she
was trusted with, to get drink. Whatever a person may have been, never
reckon on them, once they take to drinking; for the one thing that's
certain about a drunkard is, that he'll do anything to get the means of
drinking."

Miss Jones walked off down the hill, followed by a man carrying Ruth's
big trunk.

Mrs. Jeffars looked thoughtfully after her.

"She couldn't have known that I take it sometimes," she thought; "but I'll
never touch it again. I might go on and on, by degrees, until I ended like
that, and disgraced my Paul that's at sea. I'll go this very evening, God
helping me, and take the pledge—and I'll take the bottle, and leave it
with Mrs. Francis for the use of the hospital."

And she kept her word, and kept the pledge too; so Miss Jones had said
a word in season for once, at all events.

Ruth was far from well for some days, and Ralph felt very miserable.
The girl had been so badly fed, and so thoroughly chilled, that the shock
found her weak and nervous, and therefore had more effect upon her
than it would have had some weeks before. She could not sleep, and
every noise made her start violently, and turn quite sick and faint. The
doctor said, however, that there was nothing seriously wrong, and that
with care and quiet she would soon be quite herself again. And after
about a fortnight she was much better; and as to Ollie, he was as well as
ever again.

"Mr. Trulock," said Ruth, "don't you think I may go to Price's for work
again now? Ollie is quite well, and I think he may begin to go to school.
And—I wonder where I could find a lodging?" she asked slowly.

"Ollie had better not go back to school until after the Christmas holidays,
I think," said Ralph; "and as to the other matters, I will talk to you to-
morrow, Ruth."

And taking his hat, Ralph opened the hall door and was passing out,
when Ruth ran after him.

"Won't you put on your great-coat, sir, and your comforter? You don't
take a bit of care of yourself, Mr. Trulock!"

"I have a good caretaker in you," said he, coming back to her.

Ruth helped him to put on the coat, mounting on a chair for that
purpose, and wrapped the comforter round his neck, tucking in the ends
snugly.

"Now you may go," said she; "but don't stay out very late, please."

"Bless the child's sweet face!" muttered Ralph. "She certainly grows
more like my Annie every day, or else I fancy it as I grow fonder of her.
Well, the time has come for me to decide. I can't let things drift any
longer, for she won't, the little creature. I must do either one thing or the
other, and I'll make up my mind before I eat another meal. I'll go into the
Forest—it will be quiet there—and think."

He walked along the forest road until he reached the place where he
had found the children on that bright sunny Sunday when he first
brought them to his home. This was a still, grey day, very unlike that
other, but it was not very cold, here among the trees. Ralph clambered
up the bank, found the fallen tree, and seated himself upon it. There he
remained deep in thought for some time: then he rose and paced to and
fro, then sat down again. At last, he covered his face with his hands and
groaned aloud, "I can't! I can't do it!" But even as he said the words he
knew and felt that he could do it.

Ralph had been reading his Bible to better purpose lately than when he
only searched for texts wherewith to confound Mrs. Cloudesley. He had
learned many lessons during the last few months. To distrust himself; to
fear that he might be mistaken, and May Cloudesley right; to wish
earnestly to do what God would have him do, and to ask for help to do it;
—all this and more had Ralph Trulock learned, partly from May, partly
from Ruth, but still more from his Bible, which had begun to take such
new meanings lately. And now he asked for guidance, and felt that he
had it—that he knew what he ought to do; now he asked for strength to
do it, and even while he said aloud, "I cannot," he felt that he could. And
when at last, he walked home, very tired and worn with the conflict, he
went up to his own room and, without waiting to take off his great-coat,
wrote the following letter:

"Lady
Mabel's Rest,"
"
Fairford."

"MY DEAR ARNOTT,—"

"I never wrote to thank you, and those who joined you,
in writing to Mr. Barton on my behalf; but I hope you will
forgive me, and let me explain why I did not write, and
thank you all now."

"When I first came here, I had no intention of accepting

your kindness except for a time. My health was broken,
and I was unfit for work; but I had made up my mind to
save every penny I could until I had paid off the small sum
still remaining due to all of you with whom I used to have
dealings; and then, if my strength would permit, leave this
place, and look out for some small situation as clerk or
caretaker, which would support me. With these plans
 before me, I did not write. I felt sore and angry at needing
even temporary help, and soothed my pride by continually
telling myself that in the end you, and not I, should be the
gainer."

"But God in His mercy has led me, by means into which
I cannot enter (as it would take up so much of your time)
to see that such a state of feeling is not right in His eyes. I
am old and feeble now, and you all meant to secure
peace and comfort for one whom you had known long,
and who had been unfortunate. It was nothing but pride
that made me resist this kind feeling, as I acknowledge I
once did, and determine not to profit by it. I see this now."

"So I write to thank you, and through you, if you will

allow me, my other creditors, for your kind consideration,
which I thankfully accept; and the benefits which you
have secured to me I hope henceforth to share with
others even more helpless than I am myself."

"I remain,"
"Very faithfully
yours,"
"RALPH
TRULOCK."

Ralph put his letter into a cover and addressed it, but did not close it.
Next day he went to the garden and asked if he might keep Ollie,—Ruth
he had a right to keep, as his housekeeper, or "gel," as Mrs. Short put it.
The warden said he was sure there would be no difficulty about it, and
promised to arrange it all, for him. Then Ralph toiled up the hill to High
Fairford, and went to see Mrs. Cloudesley.

"Madam," said he, "as long ago as last Christmas you said a few words
to me, to which I would scarcely listen at the time, but which I could not
forget, though I surely did my best. You spoke to me of my pride, of
which up to that time I had been very proud; you spoke to me of love
and kindness—things I had hardly thought of for years. You advised me
to help some one, and that I should find my heart growing softer—and
you were right, madam. I began to search the Bible for something to
justify my own opinion, and I could not find what I wanted; but I found a
great deal about love and humility. And Ruth Garland, madam, has
taught me much. If you will kindly look over this letter, you will see that I
am in earnest."

May, with tears in her eyes, took the letter and read it. Then she looked
up at him with a smile upon her pleasant face, though the tears were
there still.

"Now that is what I like in you so much!" she said heartily. "I always
knew that you would do what was right the moment you saw it. You don't
know how happy you have made me by telling me all this. In trying to
help people, one fails so often—and the worst failure of all is, when they
acknowledge that they are in the wrong, but won't make any change.
One gets sadly disheartened then. It's quite delightful to know a person
who no sooner sees what is right, but he goes and does it."

"You must not think that of me," Ralph said sadly. "I think I saw it some
time ago, but I would not acknowledge it: and how nearly I lost my
children by that delay!"

"Well, it was not a very long delay," said May kindly. "I like your little
Ruth so much. I'm sure you will never repent having befriended her: and
as to the boy, he is a darling."

"Yes, madam, a fine boy. I will ask you to tell Mr. Cloudesley that Ollie
will not attend the Greatrex School any more. I shall send him to Mr.
Hawthorne as a day boy, and, when he is older, get him into the
Commercial school in Foxton. I think I could do that."

After a little more conversation, Ralph went home, to have a talk with
Ruth.
 CHAPTER X.

RALPH'S CHRISTMAS ROSES BLOOM AT LAST.

A BRIGHT little fire burned that evening in Ralph Trulock's parlour, and
at one side of it sat Ralph, in the easiest chair the house contained (and,
with the help of pillows, Ruth had made him very snug, though the chair
was by nature angular and uncompromising). Opposite him, in a low
wooden chair, sat Ruth, her small fingers plying her knitting-needles with
great zeal, while her eyes rested fondly on Ollie, who was stretched at
lazy length upon the little rug between the other two, reading a book lent
him by Miss Jones. Ollie lay face downward, his round chin propped up
on his two hands, and the firelight playing upon his dark hair and bright
face, made him "quite a picture," as Ruth privately told herself. Oh, if
Ollie could always have such a fire as that to bask before! For the child
loved warmth like a little cat.

"Ruth, do you remember what you said to me yesterday about getting

work?" said Ralph.

Ruth started and blushed, half afraid that he had discovered what was in
her thoughts at the moment.

"Oh yes," she said hurriedly; "do you think people would be afraid of the
measles now?"

"No, I don't suppose they would. But, Ruth, I don't want you to work for
Price's any more. I want you and Ollie to stay here with me."

"Always?" exclaimed Ollie, turning over on his back suddenly, and

gazing up at the speaker. "Oh, Mr. Trulock! Never go back to Mrs.
Cricklade again! That would be so lovely!"

Ollie did not know, even yet, that Mrs. Cricklade was dead. He had not
been told at the time because he was still weak, and Ruth had shrunk
from the subject afterwards.
"Mr. Trulock," said Ruth, "you are good—too good. You would only have
to pinch yourself for us: it could not be. Ollie, don't say any more, dear."

"Listen to me, Ruth," said Ralph earnestly. "You think I am very poor,
and I don't wonder at that, because I have given you good reason to
think so. But I am not really poor. I have as much to live on as any one
else in the Rest: as much as Mrs. Short, or Mrs. Archer, and you know
she has six children."

Ollie gave a quick look round the room, mentally contrasting it with Miss
Jones's and Mrs. Short's parlour; but Ruth shook her head and
answered,—

"You told me once, you know, that there was a claim upon your money. I
remember it, because it was what father used to say when people told
him he ought to send me to a better school."

"Yes, I told you so, and I thought so at the time. But I was wrong, Ruth. I
was too proud to accept a kindness, but I have made up my mind to
accept it, and to spend my money in making us all happy and
comfortable. You shall keep house for me, my dear, and I can teach you
in the evenings,—I'm a fair scholar in a plain way. And Ollie shall go to a
good school, and get a good education."

"Oh! Oh, Mr. Trulock! if I were only sure that you would not be making
yourself poor for us."

"I shall be richer, Ruthie, than I ever thought to be, for I shall have a
daughter and a—"

He stopped short. He could not say the word "son." Poor lost Fred!

"You mean me," said Ollie. "But, Mr. Trulock, we ought to be called your
grandchildren," he added after a little reflection. "We're too little to be
your children, don't you think? Ruthie, what makes you cry? I think it is
too good to be true. You know how cold it is at Mrs. Cricklade's, and she
is very often cross too! She hit you often, I know she did. Oh, Ruthie, do
say you will stay here. It can't be wrong—is it, Mr. Trulock?"

"It would be wrong and unkind to leave me," replied Ralph quickly.
"Oh, I am only too glad to stay—you know that," Ruth cried, springing up
and running to his side. "I only feared—"

"Have no fears, my dear child. We shall be very comfortable, and I hope

very happy too. I thank God for my two dear children."

So the question was settled, and the little Garlands stayed with Ralph.
Ollie had a holiday, as we know, but he was not allowed to be idle, for
Ruth found employment for him. She set to work, with a charwoman to
assist, to clean the house from top to bottom, and Ollie was as busy as
any one. What a polishing and brightening that house got, to be sure!
Ralph bought a little additional furniture too; and altogether his abode
quite lost the poverty-stricken air which had so distressed May
Cloudesley.

Christmas Eve came round again, and Mr. and Mrs. Cloudesley betook
themselves to Lady Mabel's Rest, to pay a short visit to each house.
May had persuaded her mother to send her a great hamper of apples,
nuts, pears, gingerbread, and jam tarts, that she might have little
presents for the children, for she knew them all now, and loved nothing
better than giving them pleasure. She had some small gift for every one,
mostly made by her own hands, and that intended for Mrs. Short was a
pretty woollen mat to ornament her table. Mrs. Short liked the mat better
than the flowers of last year, but she was intensely curious to know what
Mrs. Cloudesley was taking next door, to Mr. Trulock and the Garlands,
and May was quite determined that she should not find out. Mrs. Short
had a long list of grievances to mourn over, and was not nearly so alert
and lively as she had been on that day last year. A whole year of eating
more than enough for two had told upon her.

"Mr. Trulock never was much of a neighbour," she said, "as you know,
Mrs. Cloudesley; but when he was tramping the country from morning till
night, and never had a bit or sup in his house that a proper-minded
person would care to eat, it did not matter so much. But now, ma'am,
things is very different, and they set down to as good meals in a plainish
way as any one could desire, and Ruth is learning cooking from Miss
Jones, and she's learned her to make coffee, and cakes, and things
tossed up in the frying-pan—and I must say the smell is most tempting
—and it's all one gets of them. And if I want anything off the common, I
may just turn to and cook it, which gets to tire one, somehow; but never
once, ma'am, has they said, 'Mrs. Short, will you step in to tea?' and I
that nussed Trulock when every one else forsook him!"

"You should have a servant, Mrs. Short," said May, for want of
something to say. "She would be company for you."

"Gels eat so much," said Mrs. Short pensively. "I've a good appetite,
ma'am: I re'lly don't see how I could afford a gel. When I say a good
appetite, I don't mean a appetite as can eat anything, but if I gets what I
like I can pick a good little bit; but anything in the way, say of a
sweetbread, now, or mutton kidneys, or a Yorkshire 'Am, or a veal pie or
the like,—which I re'lly require such food, ma'am,—they cost a deal, and
no common gel can be expected to cook 'em. I can't afford a gel, and
that's the truth."

"Oh, Mrs. Short, you are no worse off than your neighbours, you know."

"Well, I don't know how they manage," said Mrs. Short thoughtfully.

"I think," said silent Mr. Cloudesley suddenly, "that by thinking a little of
other people, and not spending every penny they have upon themselves
alone, they seem to get more comfort out of this life even, to say nothing
of a life beyond this. Come, May, it is getting late."

Mrs. Short was offended, and showed them to the door in silence. Her
"Good-afternoon, ma'am," was the stiffest thing imaginable.

"That poor woman! She always depresses me, Gilbert. Why did you not
say more to her? It is so very sad."

"There was no use in saying more, my dear. One can't say more than
one sharp thing, and anything less sharp would not get through the poor
thing's coating of fat. Now, perhaps that small harpoon may stick."

The door of Ralph's house was opened by Ollie whose cheeks were
crimson with excitement.

"Please come into the parlour, ma'am, and I'll tell them. We're all in the
kitchen mixing the pudding."
"Ah, Ollie! Let me go into the kitchen and see the fun," said May. "Ruth
won't mind."

"Indeed she won't mind," said Ollie. "Come along. Will you come, sir?
You've no idea, ma'am, how many things have to go in a pudding, a real
English plum-pudding. We never saw one in France. Ruth wrote the list
and went to the shops, but when she came home, she had forgotten
both the suet and the nutmeg, and I had to run for them. Ruthie, here's
Mrs. Cloudesley, she wants to see the fun,—I suppose she means the
pudding; and Mr. Cloudesley came too."

May stood to look at the scene before her, with all the pleasure and
sympathy she so truly felt, looking out of her sweet eyes. Standing
before the fire with a cookery book in his hand, was Ralph Trulock; at
the table, mixing the various ingredients in a basin, was Ruth, her hand
in no state to be shaken. Her face was very grave. It was a great
undertaking. Ralph, on the contrary, looked amused and happy. What a
contrast to the man May had seen for the first time that day last year!

May helped to finish the mixing, and then to tie the pudding in a cloth;
and it was well she was there, as otherwise the due flouring of the cloth
would have been forgotten, and Ruth's pudding would not have
presented the handsome appearance it did present the next day. May
had brought Ollie some apples and Ruth a little book; but for Ralph she
produced a bunch of Christmas Roses, saying:

"I hardly think you want these now, Mr. Trulock?"

"Truly, madam, they grow by my own fireside now; and for great part my
thanks are due to you. You first told me how to grow them."

"I expect that's a parable," said Ollie, gravely. "Isn't it, Mr. Trulock?"

"It is, Ollie."

"And we are the flowers?" said the boy with a nod of his curly head.

"You! You are a weed, Master Ollie!" cried May laughing; "And an ill
weed too. Don't you know the old saying that 'Ill weeds grow apace'?"
Mr. Cloudesley's sharp harpoon stuck fast, but the effect was not exactly
what he wished!

A day or two after Christmas, Ruth was running home from Miss Jones's
house, where she had been having a lesson in clear starching from that
notable lady, when she was surprised to hear Mrs. Short calling to her,
in very dulcet and amiable tones.

"Where are you, ma'am?" inquired Ruth, after looking round in vain.

"In my own kitching, Ruth, and the 'all door is open. You just step here, I
want a word with you."

"Oh dear!" thought Ruth, "And I can't venture to talk French to her, like
that saucy Ollie. What can she want?"

She found Mrs. Short sitting in a well-padded beehive chair before the
kitchen range. A basket at her feet contained various brushes, saucers,
and bits of rag, and her face beamed with complacency and self-
satisfaction.

"Good-day, Ruth Golong," said she. "I've been thinking how kind Miss
Jones is, teaching you so much and having you there so constant; and I
feel I ought to help both you and her a bit."

"Yes, ma'am," said Ruth doubtfully.

"Yes, indeed, Ruth; which I am a very notable woman, my dear, and can
teach you even better than Miss Jones can, though the gentry do think
such a heap of her. My Matthew, that's dead and gone, poor fellow, used
to say that for cleanly ways and housekeeping generally, there was not
a woman to equal his wife in England; and if not in England, where? For
it's not to be thought that amongst poor benighted furriners and sich,—
black, some of 'em, I'm told, and copper-coloured others,—would be as
nice in them respects as a English woman. So I've made up my mind as
it's selfish in me to keep all that knowledge locked up in my own
buzzom, and take it, as one may say, out of the world with me when the
time comes as I must leave all my little comforts and go to a better
place, and therefore I'm going to teach you, Ruth Golong. And as it's
best to begin at the beginning, we'll begin by learning to black up the
kitching range. I've everything ready; so now, my dear, you begin. Here's
a rag, rub the rust off first with ile—this bottle's the ile."

"But, ma'am," said Ruth, "I have learned to do all this, and my dinner is
in the oven, and no one is there to look to it; for Mr. Trulock and Ollie are
gone for a walk."

"Well, you know, Ruth, there's the comfort of a oven, your dinner is a-
cooking all the same and will never miss you. Here, child, take the rag."

Ruth, unwillingly enough, took the proffered rag and removed the rust as
directed. She was rather vexed, but being shy could think of no way of
escape.

"Now here's the blacklead, child, and this is the brush. Rub it on well,
dear—oh, that won't do at all—rub hard—harder—quick now, up and
down the bar. That's more like it. Good, my dear!"

In this manner did the good creature keep her pupil to the task until the
grate was polished to her liking, and Ruth in a glow with heat and
vexation.

"Now," said she, "that's not bad, my dear, for a beginning. A few more
lessons, and you'll black a grate with any one living, you will indeed.
Now there's a great art in lighting of a oven. Some folks will take an hour
or more to do it. Very disconvenient these here little ovens are, as have
a fire all to themselves. You take a shovel full of lighted coal, my dear,"
etc., etc.

Again poor Ruth found herself unable to escape, the fire was lighted
under Mrs. Short's directions.

"That's enough for one day, my dear," said the old woman. "I'll call you in
again whenever I can make time to give you another lesson. Good-day,
Ruth Golong; you're a handy gel, and will do us credit yet."

Ruth escaped as fast as she could, and ran home, half angry, but more
than half amused. Mrs. Short rose from her chair and got her neatly
made veal pie from her cupboard.

"Sich a comfort," she murmured, "to get the grate done. Mrs.
Cloudesley's sure to hear of it. It will be nearly as good as having a gel,
and it's no more than good-natured to teach that poor orphian to get a
living, as that crusty old feller may turn her out to do for herself any day."

Mrs. Cloudesley did hear of it, and so did Mr. Cloudesley; and what a
laugh May had at her husband about his "harpoon!"

For some time after this Ruth's life was rendered a burden to her by the
exactions of her "good-natered" neighbour; but at last she was obliged
to rebel, and told Mrs. Short that she had not time to do the work of two
houses. Mrs. Short characterized this as an act of the basest ingratitude,
and was never tired of telling any one who would listen, how she tried to
befriend that set-up-thing, Ruth Golong, and how the gel turned upon
her with langwich which was too violent to be repeated!

In consequence of Ruth's vile ingratitude, it became plain to Mrs. Short

that she must do one of three things, none of which she entirely liked.
She might return to doing the work herself, which her rapidly increasing
size rendered both difficult and distasteful to her. Or she might leave the
work undone—cease to keep her place so beautifully clean, and attend
merely to her cooking; to do her justice, this idea only suggested itself to
be rejected. Or again, she might get a "gel." This she would do, she
decided, after much deliberation.

The next point was, to get a "gel" for as little wages as possible—for
none, if it could be managed. She therefore wrote to her son, offering in
the handsomest manner to take "his Mary Kate" off his hands, educating
her to be a notable woman like herself, and leaving to her such sums as
she should have saved before her death. But Mat Short was very fond of
his children, and they were not fond of their grandmother! Moreover Mat
did not believe in the savings, for as he said to his wife, "Mother'd eat
five hundred a year if she had it!" This obliging offer was declined. Mary
Kate howled from the moment she heard her grandmother's letter read
until the reply was safely posted. Then, and not till then, did Mrs. Short
bethink herself of her long-lost daughter.
Now, though she always spoke of Jane as lost, Jane might more
properly be said to be merely mislaid. Mrs. Short did not know where
she was, simply because she had never inquired! Jane had offended
her mother while very young, by going out as a servant, owing to what
Mrs. Short called "competition of temper" at home. Then she had
married, and Mrs. Short, then a widow, had cast her off: people were
unkind enough to say that she feared lest Jane might expect a little help
occasionally. Now, however, the case was different, and Mrs. Short
caused a little quiet inquiry to be made about Jane, and discovered that
she was a widow, with one son, who was at sea. Mrs. Short piously
declared that it was "quite a Prominence," and forthwith wrote to Jane
whose name, by way of a joke, was Mrs. Long,—to invite her to be a
comfort to her mother's declining years.

Mrs. Long, who was again in service, thought she might as well try, in
spite of the "competition" I have mentioned; or perhaps she knew that
her temper had improved since the last competition, and wished to try
again. At all events, she came, and great was Ollie's amusement at the
queer contrast presented by Mrs. Long and Mrs. Short when he first saw
them, on their way to church together, on the first Sunday after Mrs.
Long's arrival. Mrs. Short, broader than she was long, waddling up the
hill in her handsome tartan shawl, the tartan of some clan which was
addicted to colour, and did not mind being seen a good way off. Mrs.
Long, a very tall, thin woman, with an expression of meek obstinacy in
her face, stalking beside her mother in a shabby, rusty black cloak, and
a bonnet which looked as if she had accidentally sat down upon it.

But before long (I don't mean that for a pun) Mrs. Short found that she
had made a great mistake, and, what was worse, one that could not be
un-made. Jane's temper had quite the best of the competition now! She
did not scold or storm, she seldom even answered again; but she smiled
sourly when her affectionate mother tried to feed her upon bacon and
cabbage, while she herself dined upon various costly delicacies. After a
brief struggle, Jane had her own way, and her full share of such good
things as were going. But these were not as plenty as of old.

Mrs. Long remarked that it was her mother's plain duty to save a certain
sum weekly, to form a little fortune for her when she should be again left
homeless by the old woman's death. She not only pointed out this duty,
but she saw that it was done. She made the old woman fairly
comfortable, however, and nursed her carefully when she required it; but
she ruled her completely, and altogether things were not to Mrs. Short's
mind, and she sometimes mournfully wished that she had "got a gel."

"But there," she said, "that's me all over; I couldn't get Jane out of my
head, thinking she might be actially in want, and I in comfort; I'm too
good-natured, that's the truth, and Jane don't take after me!"

"That's the Long and the Short of it!" As saucy Ollie Garland remarked
when he heard this lament.

CHAPTER XI.
MONSIEUR OLIVER.

A YEAR passed very quietly and happily in Ralph Trulock's house. Ollie
was going to school now, and Ruth was a busy and a happy little
woman, and had grown much stronger and less nervous than she had
been when she first came to Lady Mabel's Rest. Ralph gave her lessons
every evening, when the day's work was over, and was making a good
scholar of her in a plain, old-fashioned way. Mrs. Cloudesley taught her
various kinds of fancy-work, and Miss Jones made her a first-rate cook
and a capital housekeeper in every way. So Ruth bade fair to be an
accomplished woman, according to my notions. If a woman can do with
her own hands, and do well, everything that is needed for the comfort of
her household; can read and enjoy books on a variety of subjects in two
languages; can keep accounts well, and write a good hand, and has,
moreover, an employment for her leisure hours which she likes and
excels in,—I call her an accomplished woman, though she may never
have learned to torture my ears with "a tune" on the piano, or to paint