In a twenty-five year career devoted to autism, Michel Lemay has treated over six hundred children. In this accessible book, he shares an uncommon wealth of observations with the general reader. After inquiring into the exact definition of autism, he addresses such issues as its underlying causes and recent developments in the treatment of autistic patients. He offers a clear appraisal of the contributions and failures of various disciplines (psychoanalysis, neurobiology, genetics, chemical and drug treatment, and behavioural and cognitive therapies), and makes a case for a multidisciplary type of medicine.
His therapeutic approach, on the educational as well as clinical level, relies on two basic convictions:
— that one must bring together professionals from different disciplines (psychoanalysts, psycho-educators and therapists who are willing to meet the challenge of applying to autism such specialisations as cognitive-behaviourist therapies, speech therapy and occupational therapy)
— that one must work in close collaboration with parents, instead of regarding them as patients afflicted with some strange problem.
Resulting from a unique experience, this book offers both parents and professionals a great source of strength with which to fight against autism.

Michel Lemay is a psychiatrist and professor of child and adolescent psychiatry. A world-renowned specialist in autism, he is the director of the clinic on autism and invasive development disorders at the Hôpital Sainte-Justine in Montreal.