Amy S.F. Lutz is a historian of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, vice president of the National Council on Severe Autism and the parent of a profoundly autistic son, Jonah, 24. She has written about profound autism for many platforms, including The Atlantic, Psychology Today, Spectrum and Slate. Her most recent book is “Chasing the Intact Mind: How the Severely Autistic and Intellectually Disabled Were Excluded From the Debates That Affect Them Most” (2023). She is also the author of “We Walk: Life With Severe Autism” (2020) and “Each Day I Like It Better: Autism, ECT, and the Treatment of Our Most Impaired Children” (2014). She lives outside of Philadelphia with her husband and whichever of her five children happen to be home at the time.

Amy S.F. Lutz
Writer
From this contributor
Building bridges: Collaboration across the autism community
An autistic person and the mother of an autistic child explore partnership in the autism community.

Building bridges: Collaboration across the autism community
Adults with disabilities deserve right to choose where to live
The idea that one residential model is appropriate for the entire spectrum of intellectual and developmental disability is patently absurd.

Adults with disabilities deserve right to choose where to live
Explore more from The Transmitter
On the importance of reading (just not too much)
The real fun of being a neuroscientist, and maybe the key to asking and answering new questions, is to think big and take intellectual risks.

On the importance of reading (just not too much)
The real fun of being a neuroscientist, and maybe the key to asking and answering new questions, is to think big and take intellectual risks.
How developing neurons simplify their search for a synaptic mate
Streamlining the problem from 3D to 1D eases the expedition—a strategy the study investigators deployed to rewire an olfactory circuit in flies.

How developing neurons simplify their search for a synaptic mate
Streamlining the problem from 3D to 1D eases the expedition—a strategy the study investigators deployed to rewire an olfactory circuit in flies.
NIH autism database announcement raises concerns among researchers
The U.S. National Institutes of Health announced a plan to pour $50 million into data science projects intended to investigate the condition’s causes, but the initiative’s short timeline and other atypicalities have prompted questions.

NIH autism database announcement raises concerns among researchers
The U.S. National Institutes of Health announced a plan to pour $50 million into data science projects intended to investigate the condition’s causes, but the initiative’s short timeline and other atypicalities have prompted questions.