ABSTRACT
It is only as this book is going to press that I begin to realize clearly the underlying scheme of understanding that has emerged from my many years of clinical work with autistic children, and from my attempts to digest this experience by writing books and papers. The hypothesis that has emerged is not a developmental one in terms of 'stages' or 'phases' or positions, but is concerned with states of consciousness. My concern has been with sensation states, the senses being the primary organs of consciousness.
