So I’m coming here, into my husband’s study
so that I can find my PhD thesis
which I know is here on this shelf,
right next to my husband’s thesis.
Of course, it will be very, very dusty.
So, here it is: blue binding,
as was standard for London University, 1968.
The title is 'Pattern Detection in Normal and Autistic Children'.
I wanted to know in what way
information is processed differently in autistic children.
It really is as if it was written by a different person
– very, very long ago – but I have to say,
I’m not reacting with embarrassment as I thought I would
because it’s really quite nice.
What it says is quite modest,
I think, as far as I can see.
We can find out whether I am modest when it comes to the conclusion.
I have no memory whatsoever of what I actually did conclude in the end.
The conclusion is…
that autistic children treat the external world as if it were random,
imposing simple patterns upon it.
It is presumptuous to think that those patterns imposed by autistic children
are any worse than the patterns I have imposed on the data…
Well, that’s quite philosophical!
So I came from Germany in 1964, I think it
was,
and Psychology at that time in London,
or in the UK, was absolutely thriving.
It was an amazing city;
to me, completely enchanting in many, many different ways.
At the same time I think it was also the place
where a condition like autism was really studied in a scientific way.
And I felt I had really found what I was dreaming about.
I was doing a course in abnormal psychology
at the University of London, at the Institute of Psychiatry.
It was very research oriented
and I came across autistic children in real
life for the first time.
I was completely fascinated and I still am.
I was very proud at the time; I do remember that.
Am I proud of it still?
That’s a more difficult question.
I’m not sure.
It was a very important learning phase and apprenticeship,
for a start, where I learnt from my supervisors
how to design experiments, how to do experiments.
There is a kind of artisan aspect to being
a scientist
and I think you get it through apprenticeship
and it does mean doing what we might call slave labour
for some of the time.
But you learn through that.
I have to say there is very, very little in that thesis
about the biology of autism or the causes of autism.
I think that was one of the nice things
and what I learnt as a PhD student,
is that you have to be quite modest in your questions.
It’s no good just trying to answer absolutely everything…
What causes autism? Why is it there?
What can we do about it? Treatments and everything...
No – you should ask a question
that you can actually, possibly, answer
and then go, step by step, further.
