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The discussion about this writer's 'autistic authenticity' (or otherwise) seems to link with the earlier exchange about labelling, and whether or not the distinction between types/classes of impairment is welcome. As a Social Worker, I was concerned for a time with a young man whose behaviour was extremely disruptive and included a lot of illegal acts. He was known to have a hearing loss, and had been unofficially described as 'atypically autistic' (which ranks with 'nonspecific idiopathy' on the uselessness scale). However, this could not account for his behavioural difficulties, nor was there anything in his history which obviously led to his taking a socially delinquent path. He had been difficult to look after throughout his childhood and had come into the care of the Local Authority, but at age 18 he was no longer a child and the question arose as to what, if any, services should be provided. The issue hinged on who - if anyone - pays. As one of my fairly well-paid managers said, we need to know if he is 'mad or bad' (sic). The point being that, for the moment he was in the Local Authority's care and it was costing an arm and a leg as he had been moved from placement to ever-more-expensive placement as the disruption escalated. If he was 'bad', we could let him go about his business as an autonomous adult and he would doubtless be nicked and banged up. (Criminal Justice system pays). If he was 'mad', we could shunt him towards Health. After all, they've been shunting enough our way for years. . . They looked at him and offered a place in a unit for people with severe learning difficulties. He became depressed at the prospect. We managed to get enough Local Authority/Health cooperation to secure a more expert assessment than had been done before, which helped us begin to understand that there might be neurological factors involved, leading to a diagnosis (or 'description' or 'label') of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Armed with this, we could begin the search for a suitably skilled service to support him, and argue for some cost-sharing between Local Authority and Health. When I last heard, he was a lot happier and he was being constructively helped on the behaviour front, thus reducing the likelihood of a lifetime in jail. And we ask, 'What's in a name? Quite a lot, sometimes. Cheers, Barry %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%