Revision of: Autistisch gezelschap; een empirisch-filosofisch onderzoek naar het gezamenlijk bestaan van autistische en niet-autistische personen [Autistic company; an empirical-philosophical study of the shared existence of autistic and non-autistic persons]. 2000.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 244-264).

Introduction: a mixture of the strange and the familiar -- Given reality: autism - facts and figures -- On stage: the autist, the author, his characters and their props -- Body and mind shows: the imagination deficit, theory of mind, and atmospheric turbulence -- On words and clocks: the socialisation deficit and temporal ordering in a community for young autists -- With lacelike precision: the communication deficit and autobiographical works by autistic people -- Autistic company.

"Social interactions of autistic and non-autistic persons are intriguing. In all sorts of situations people with autism are part of the daily life of those around them. Such interactions exist despite the lack of familiar ways of attuning to one another. In Autistic Company, the anthropologist and philosopher Ruud Hendriks — himself trained as a care worker for young people with autism — investigates what alternative means are sometimes found by autistic and non-autistic people to establish a shared existence. Unprecedented in scholarly work on autism, the book also reflects on how to talk about these unusual ways of getting on together. Drawing on methods from both the arts and the social sciences, this study covers very diverse sources, ranging from literary works to factual writing on autism in science and advisory literature, and from autobiographical accounts to ethnographic observations in a home for autistic people."