Manhattan Floating in the East River Mural

"Manhattan Floating" is Seth's largest project to date. Consisting of 104 individual 16" x 24" panels, painted in Acrylic. It premiered at Time Equities building (55 E 5th Ave in Manhattan) November 9th 2010. 


Visit Seth's website for more information and more beautifully vivid art pieces: http://www.sethchwastart.com/

"An Unexpected Life:" Part 1

I have spent all the free time I've had in the last two days (which sadly, isn't much since we had some family events throughout this weekend) reading "An Unexpected Life." 

This book is transforming. Written by Debra Chwast, her narrative chronicles the life her autistic son has led so far (as he is in his mid-20's) from the struggling child to a successful and prominent artist he is today. Additionally, as I had mentioned before, the book is filled with Seth's paintings and art pieces which help create a time line of his life through his works. 

His mother, Debra, is an absolute inspiration. Although my copy of the book is highlighted with inspiring quotes, there's a few which still resonate in my head. Here is one: 

At eighteen, Seth had a formal vocational evaluation that determined he was best suited to a career in dry mopping. There we were in that dusty little office where Seth had just completed a three-day evaluation to determine his potential for employment. all that work, all those therapies, all those hours that we and other had devoted to him -- with all that he could do, the result was dry mopping? I said I would die first. (page 13) 

Contradicting a predicted career as a janitor, Debra Chwast gave Seth a life of which many would dream. After her first attempt to give Seth a "normal life," she brushed that aside and decided upon a new goal: to give Seth a "good life." From page 14 and so on until page 120, Seth blossoms as an artist, traveling the world and being featured in national and international exhibitions. And of course, his art pieces from each show trail along with her narrative. 


However, throughout her push and struggle to give Seth a "good life," she reveals much about autism and addresses the three characterizations of autism from the dictionary.com definition. 

• "impaired communication" 
• As explained in the definition of autism (which will be further explained in a later post), Autism is a disorder of, generally, communication. A person with autism is withdrawn within themselves and often has trouble communicating. In the book and in especially the chapter titled, "New Friends are Everywhere," Debra Chwast tries and succeeds to surround Seth with people of all ages and cultivate communication in him. She talks of his mentors, high school and then college students who volunteer to spend time with Seth, his first friend Adam, his second mom, Amy, and the people who've accepted his offer to email him. All these people help take Seth of the "internal world" autism created. 
• "excessive rigidity" 
• The "rigidity" which usually characterizes autistic kids is escaped by his talent -- art. His art gives him a creative outlet. Rather than create a rigidity, she creates this passion for the boy. In an episode, he passionately wants to paint a decapitated boy and a girl with limbs off due to a roller coaster accident and at first, his mother was apalled to at his desire. However, he refused to paint or talk about anything else. This mentor urged Debra to let go and see where it took them. The painting wasn't gory at all, but just a symbolic representation of the tragedy. In her own words, this was a way for Seth to grieve, rather than a depiction of "rigidity."
• "emotional detachment" 
• By surrounding him with people, Debra Chwast gives him emotional relationships. This can be seen with Amy, a girl between Debra and Seth's age who becomes a close, close friend of the family and finally, will take care of Seth if anything should happen to Debra. In ecstasy, Debra quotes her son, who calls Amy, "his second mom." 

Thus, in this biography, Debra not only tells an inspiring story, but also gives advice on therapy and coping with the autism. After all, she experienced it herself first hand. 

Punishment

"And how are we, the stewards of the autistic, doing? When Seth was a teenager, a soon-to-be senile, nationally prominent psychologist said, 'You've tried everything else to get him to speak. Why don't you try punishment?' If one question could make the universe weep, that one would be a contender. A decade later, it continues to resonate inside me. Because that impulse exists in the world, I feel horror, pain, fear and sorrow for all the autistic children and their families and for everyone who cannot defend themselves." 

 This is a quote from the book, An Unexpected Life, I had posted about earlier. 


Seth's mother's response to such a suggestion pretty much encapsulates my feelings right now -- how many autistic children, much less people, have been abused in such a way? It seems naive of me to think that the world is just dandy. And I've learned of abuse afflicted upon people with disabilities, but to realize punishment was a medical therapy to promote communication in autistic children honestly sickens me. 


To hear a supposed "nationally prominent psychologist" suggest to attack a defenseless child is vomit-inducing and tear-jerking. 


Perhaps I'm being a bit too harsh consider this was, as written, ten years ago, before much knowledge was known about autism and people did not know what it was or how to deal with the disorder. 


However, a resentful, terrifying, and once again, seemingly naive question which dwells in my mind is that, how much talent and curiosity has been suppressed due to ignorance? 

"An Unexpected Life" and "The Autism Answer Book"

These are two books I bought today from Barnes and Nobles:

• An Unexpected Life by Debra Chwast



Sorry, it's sideways. I haven't learned how to rotate the pictures on Blogger yet. 

• This book is a personal account of "a mother and son's story of love, determination, autism, and art." What really enticed me into this book is, childishly, the pictures. The book is a narrative that is also filled with artwork the son had created, his unique talent (another unique manifestation of autism.) The book tells a story through the mother's words and through her son's art pieces. 
• The Autism Answer Book by William Stillman
• This book is written in an Q&A format -- simple and easy to read. The questions address autistic issues and general "need-to-know" about autism for parents. 

These two books are more focused on the social category of autism as they address a personal relationship with autism and a generic parent's overview of autism. 

Meeting with My Mentor: November 15, 2011

My mentor for this project is Dr. Cearley, a pediatrician at a local hospital. 

My first meeting with her went well -- we exchanged contact information, paperwork, and further details about the project. 

Going into the project, I had realized that it'd probably be beneficial and more than necessary to narrow down my topic. To truly delve into Autism is astonishing. There are so many aspects like I had mentioned in my last post: "the science behind their disorders, the therapies, and their ways of coping and overcoming them." 


Dr. Cearley broke these topics down to two generic categories: scientific and social aspects. 

• Under science would be the manifestations, the diagnosis, the development, and then the treatment. 
• Under social aspects would be the autistic person's behavior, their relationships, and their learning. 

I'm still undecided on which path I should take and even deeper into that trail, because like I said before, it would be difficult to truly understand all of autism's aspects. 

Dr. Cearley suggested several books to me on different these two categories of autism and she also suggested that I first research on Autism a little more before I turn left or right. 

Plan: To understand a brief overview on both categories on autism before deciding on whether to take the scientific or social approach.

What is Autism?

According to autismspeaks.org, 

(1) Autism is a complex neurobiological disorder that typically lasts throughout a person's lifetime. (4) It is part of a group of disorders known as autism spectrum disorders (ASD). (3) Today, 1 in 150 individuals are diagnosed with autism, making it more common than pediatric cancer, diabetes and AIDS combined. It occurs in all racial, ethnic, and social groups and is four time more likely to strike boys than girls. (2) Autism impairs a person's ability to communicate and relate to others. It is also associate with rigid routines and repetitive behaviors, such as obsessively arranging objects or following very specific routines. Symptoms can range from very mild to quite severe.

I'll address this descriptions in segments correlating to the description. 


1. What is autism mean? 


To break it down, I'll rely on word origins. 

The word autism is derived from the Greek word autos, meaning "self." Thus autism is characterized by being introverted, as intentionally withdrawn and lacking 'social reciprocity" due to troubles communicating and unintentional disregard for social norms. 


From a more scientific and physiological (rather than psychological) perspective, autism is a common irregularity contrived from the body receiving signals transmitted by the brain, resulting in disconnects and misfires. 

2. How is autism characterized?


And from this characteristic of communication difficulty, many other attributes emerge: 

• Difficulty making eye contact, appropriate facial expressions, body language, and gestures 
• Challenged in developing friends and prefers to play alone 
• May talk, but finds difficulty starting or continuing a conversation socially 
• Physical speech impairment or delay during growth 
• Unusual language use; for example, using third person to refer to himself or repeating words and phrases 
• Engaging in strict routines, and upset if they are disrupted 
• Has a strong and intense preoccupation with certain item or topic -- a talent and passion

3. How was autism developed in terms of knowledge and statistics? 

Autism was discovered in 1801, when a French physician, Jean-Mark Gaspard documented the earliest account in The Wild Boy of Aveyron and since then, more and more studies and discoveries are being made concerning autism. In fact, this issue has become a point of concern, why does it seem autism is being heard more often than earlier and does this mean the number of children with autism is increasing? 

The answer to the first is that since 1994, when the publication of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), it created a reference tome and more abundant, common, and standardized knowledge concerning psychological disorders. Now, children who were previously classified as mentally retarded of something else were identified with autism.

In 2007, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cite that nearly "500,000 individuals under age twenty-one" are autistic and that doesn't even account for the adults with autism today. But to conclude the second question, it is unknown whether the rise in statistics is a result of proper diagnosis or genetic, social, or environmental factors. 

4. What is the "Autism Spectrum Disorder?" 


The spectrum disorders refers to 5 variations of "pervasive developmental disorders" which correlate to different degrees of manifestation of autism, from very functional and nearly "normal" to noncommunicate. The 5 are (which will be addressed individually in a later post): 

1. Autism Disorder (or Autism)
2. Asperger's Disorder (or Asperger's syndrome)
3. Rett's disorder, 
4. child disintegrative disorder
5. pervasive developmental disorder - not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) 

What is Autism: A Dictionary Definition

au·tism

   [aw-tiz-uhm]  Show IPA

noun

1.

Psychiatry . a pervasive developmental disorder of children,characterized by impaired communication, excessive rigidity,and emotional detachment.

2.

a tendency to view life in terms of one's own needs and desires.

This is according to Dictionary.com Unabridged

Based on Random House Dictionary (c) Random House, Inc. 2011