Customer Reviews

A Passion To Believe: Autism And The Facilitated Communication Phenomenon (Essays in Developmental Science)

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Twachtman-Cullen's meticulously researched and impeccably objective case studies of "facilitated communication" go beyond demonstrating the messages produced to be the handiwork of the "facilitators" themselves. With great sensitivity and respect for the people with autism involved - indeed, greater sensitivity and respect than is shown by the "facilitators", despite their rhetoric about trust - she documents the way in which the methods and practices of the "facilitators", such as ignoring clear verbal and non-verbal signals which might conflict with the facilitated "messages", in fact frustrate and abuse their clients, producing aggression, anxiety, attempts to escape, and even self-injurious behaviour.

This book should be read and heeded by everyone connected with the autism field, not only for its dazzling expose of FC, but also for its insight into the way in which a fanatically-defended ideology can end up riding rough-shod over the basic human rights of the people it purports to be helping. People with autism deserve better than being used as human Ouija boards.

This is a very shallow investigation of Facilitated Communication and represents an out-dated (thank goodness!) view of the behavior of autistics as "what you see is all there is". I used FC with many students in the early 90's and found that when a student walked away from me it didn't necessarily mean he/she didn't want to continue. In fact one boy jumped up and ran off, and when I followed him and asked him why he left in the middle of a sentence, he typed, "I WAS JUST SO EXCITED" and was very willing to continue our conversation.
I have continued to use FC with some individuals for 20 years, and for those whose communication is accepted it has made an enormous difference in the quality of their lives. For those who are not permitted to use FC in their living environments (some group homes and institutions do not allow its use), the frustration and disappointment are palpable. These people complain of loneliness and boredom, frustration and anger at not being seen and treated as intelligent individuals.
This method of communication deserves at the very least to be examined more carefully. Skeptics need to go to the source and see for themselves how people who use FC function as the people they are -- real people with hopes and dreams, people who care about others, people with opinions. Communication is such an important part of all of our lives. Without the most careful scrutiny, we cannot afford to turn away from something that can make a person's life worth living. Twachtman-Cullen's observations don't come close.

Twatchman's book has various errors of fact that could have been checked, but its serious flaws are more basic. Her viewpoint comes out most clearly in the section where she points out that people using facilitated communication often produce output inconsistent with their previous assessments. How do FCT people account for that? she asks, and seems to think she has made a point. The answer is, of course, that assessments made without being able to communicate with a person would be expected to differ from assessments made with a person who could communicate, and the fact that she cannot see this elementary point points to her basic mind-set. She believes that psychological assessments are infallible, however they are done. She believes that what has been done in the past is infallible, that we already know all we need about (say) autism, and that no new concepts are conceivable or permissible. Writing from this standpoint it is hardly surprising that she misinterprets almost everything about the cases she purports to record. The book is illogical, biased, and an example of 'scientism' rather than scientific thinking. Anybody who can't pick ten internal contradictions in the first chapter has no business calling themselves a sceptic.