Autistic genius novelist woos the literary world with novel composed using "Facilitated Communication"

[catsmate]

Some skepticism.
Daniel Engber

The Publishing Mystery That No One Wants to Talk About

A minimally speaking autistic man just wrote a best-selling book. Or did he?

www.theatlantic.com

Stuart Vyse

The Scandal of Woody Brown’s Upward Bound | Skeptical Inquirer

April is Autism Acceptance Month, and NBC’s Today Show marked the occasion by announcing their “Read with Jenna Book Club” selection for April—Upward Bound, ...

skepticalinquirer.org

Under Attack from the Armies of Autism Pseudoscience | Skeptical Inquirer

Part I—The Social Media Mob On May 1, 2026, Amy S. F. Lutz, a historian of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the mother of a young man with pro ...

skepticalinquirer.org

Jesse Singal

The Woody Brown Saga Required A Number Of Institutional Failures

This is a pretty bad sign

jessesingal.substack.com

Freddie deBoer

We Have to Hold the Line Against the Cruel Pseudoscience of Facilitated Communication

the New York Times seems hellbent on restoring public faith in the comprehensively discredited practice

freddiedeboer.substack.com

Liam Kelly

The awkward case of the ‘miracle’ autistic author Woody Brown

The 28-year-old writes by pointing at a board held by his mother. But with no evidence to support this method, his credentials are in doubt

www.telegraph.co.uk

Greg Mayer

NBC and the NYT appear to be duped by a discredited technique: facilitated communication

Facilitated communication, or “FC,” is the supposed ability of people who can’t speak and are severely handicapped to “communicate” by having a “helper” gu…

whyevolutionistrue.com

David Cycleback

When Discredited Ideas Return

Facilitated Communication and the cultural resurrection of pseudoscience

davidcycleback.substack.com

 

[zooterkin]

So many angry youtubers!

 

[Beerina]

I don't think it's ressurection. It's the downside of waiting for your enemies to die off to win your argument.

The good guys die off, too, and evil soulless opportunism springs eternal.

 

[angrysoba]

Here's a non-verbal autistic person who became a professor ... thanks to his...mother.

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Oh dear! This didn’t age well. Vixen using the case of Jason Arday to prove that Woody Brown is not a case of fraud…

Adell [sic]

People need to realize that when a story seems too good to be true, it probably isn’t. Especially when the claims are blindingly obviously bollocks…

More information. As you saw in the example above, re Jason Adell, who was diagnosed as autistic and non-verbal until about age eleven. He didn't read or write until age eighteen, thanks to meeting an academic mentor who detected signs of intellect and encouraged it. He is now a professor at Cambridge University. So whilst no two autistic persons will be the same, some having a wider range of neurological, developmental and kinaesthetic issues than others, I can quite see that Woody came into his own after being labelled a non-learner by his school. In addition, Woody has two siblings. I don't see how you can conclude without knowing that he 'has never communicated with anyone but his mother'. Do you seriously think it likely Woody could get two degrees in English (NOT an easy subject) from prestigious universities if he was not 'all there'? I understand he is now doing a PhD. (Cue sound of boiling blood from youtuber influencers.)

 

[Vixen]

Oh dear! This didn’t age well. Vixen using the case of Jason Arday to prove that Woody Brown is not a case of fraud…

People need to realize that when a story seems too good to be true, it probably isn’t. Especially when the claims are blindingly obviously bollocks…

It has not been proven the tragic Jason Arday was a fraud. He DID have a PhD from John Moores Liverpool Uni. They DID investigate claims he had plagiarised and found he had not done anything wrong. Arday then kicked around various other unis, including Durham and Glasgow, IIRC, ending up at Cambridge Uni as a sociology professor. He WAS a professor, so no signs of fraud there, either. As for his claimed charitable activitiies, he DID run marathons. The 360 miles in 35 days or whatever was largely based on treadmill running. His claim of $5m raised at a conference in the US seems to be based on a syndicate of 100 other people. We all know how charities use hyperbole for fundraising (think, Captain Tom, or the letters in large crossing the screens during Children in Need or Red Nose Day of sums people have pledged [not actually as yet donated!] so either exaggerated or he heard it from someone. Again we don`t know it is fraud per se rather than psychological gee-ing up, as happens in charity `auctions`, with one rich person trying to one-up-manship on another. When I did a 30-mile walk for Oxfam* as a kid, I took around my `sponsorship` form, and noted that people signed up to sponsor me when they saw others they knew had. Again, re his claimed semi-pro football. AIUI he was an amateur league player at one point.

OK, so his PhD was in Physical Education, not Sociology, but Cambridge Uni knew this when they hired him. If Arday was out of his depth, that is on Cambridge if indeed they did `tokenise`´ him.

There were over 221 articles written about Arday in a short space of time by the right wing press, initiated by an openly eugenicist agitator, Nathan Cofnas , who is vehemently anti-EDI (NB: it is not `DEI`, that is American). This is without any proof whatsoever that Arday was a practised `confidence trickster`. After all, you can hardly trick a uni into giving you a PhD and even if you did, you didn`t lie when you applied for your next appointment. Liverpool Uni investigated the plagiarism claim and rejected it. So Arday did no wrong. He says that because of his autistic condition, he adopts mimicry. It is well-known that autistic persons are often wired to not pick up social cues naturally, so they simply watch other people and mimic what is considered appropriate social behaviour.

Now, I have to say, when he said he didn`t learn to read until he was 18 I was rather sceptical he had academic leanings, as all of my academic friends were keen readers from an early age, as was, apparently, Woody Brown (albeit the tales of Thomas Tank & Friends). But then again PE doesn`t require ´brains´.

Let´s get this into perspective, most of the people vilifying Arday aren`t even journalists, just two-bit columnists, such as Julia Hartley- Brewer [_sp?], Sarah Vine and Toby Young, et al. One, Max Pemberton, is a psychiatrist who, most unprofessionally, `diagnosed`Arday from his armchair as a Narcissistic Fantasist (or similar), totally against his professional code of conduct. Toby Young was REJECTED from Oxford because of poor A-Levels. His father, a Baron, got Oxford to accept his educationally lacking son, based on the fact Oxford originally accepted Young`s p!sspoor A-Level results ìn error`, so it had been the honourable thing to do (Young`s father argued).

Cambridge Uni were in the process of investigating the hacks` claims, so before condemning Arday as a cunning conman, one should have waited for the results of the investigation into Arday`s appointment.

ISTM there is still zero evidence that he or Woody Brown (or Brown`s mother) wilfully deceived anyone. Of course, there is a case for unearned merit but that is another topic.

*I only managed about 17 miles and couldn`t walk for days afterwards.

 

[Darat]

There has been plenty of evidence in this thread that Woody did not write the book, that you want it to be true doesn't make it true.

 

[catsmate]

There has been plenty of evidence in this thread that he did not write the book, that you want it to be true doesn't make it true.

That would be Woody Brown? I don't want any ambiguity in this thread.

 

[Darat]

I've edited my post to say Woody

 

[Vixen]

There has been plenty of evidence in this thread that Woody did not write the book, that you want it to be true doesn't make it true.

What evidence other than an angry youtuber and campaigners who want to protect alleged child abusers from claims presented by disabled children and young adults?

 

[Vixen]

That would be Woody Brown? I don't want any ambiguity in this thread.

For goodness sake, as a severely disabled person, Woody is legally entitled to reasonable adjustments, in his academic endeavours.

 

[Darat]

What evidence other than an angry youtuber and campaigners who want to protect alleged child abusers from claims presented by disabled children and young adults?

I provided evidence.

 

[Darat]

For goodness sake, as a severely disabled person, Woody is legally entitled to reasonable adjustments, in his academic endeavours.

And of course no one has ever argued that he shouldn't be entitled to reasonable adjustments. Indeed that's what I suspect all of us in this thread who are disgusted with his mother using him as a puppet for her own endeavours want to happen. We have many ways of helping non-verbal autistic people like Woody to have as fulfilling and happy life as possible, unfortunately he is not being allowed to have such help.

 

[Helen]

Mulberry Monday!

 

[Vixen]

And of course no one has ever argued that he shouldn't be entitled to reasonable adjustments. Indeed that's what I suspect all of us in this thread who are disgusted with his mother using him as a puppet for her own endeavours want to happen. We have many ways of helping non-verbal autistic people like Woody to have as fulfilling and happy life as possible, unfortunately he is not being allowed to have such help.

So how come you know better than the admission bods at UCLA and Stanford?

 

[jadebox]

So how come you know better than the admission bods at UCLA and Stanford?

As I said earlier, it is quite likely that between ADA and HIPPA regulations, they had little choice but to accept what the mother claimed and had to go along with the charade to avoid fines or lawsuits or accusations of discrimination.

 

[Darat]

So how come you know better than the admission bods at UCLA and Stanford?

The question should be how were they fooled into thinking this wasn't FC?

 

[Pixel42]

So how come you know better than the admission bods at UCLA and Stanford?

We've had this conversation already. Do you have any new points to make, or questions to ask? Has the information you said you were waiting for before reaching the conclusion which is already obvious to everyone else magically turned up?

The only reason this thread was bumped was for an update on an entirely different person, who you had (inadvisedly, it has turned out) used as a precedent. Unless you can answer yes to at least one of the above questions, there's no reason not to let it die again.

 

[angrysoba]

It has not been proven the tragic Jason Arday was a fraud. He DID have a PhD from John Moores Liverpool Uni. They DID investigate claims he had plagiarised and found he had not done anything wrong. Arday then kicked around various other unis, including Durham and Glasgow, IIRC, ending up at Cambridge Uni as a sociology professor. He WAS a professor, so no signs of fraud there, either. As for his claimed charitable activitiies, he DID run marathons. The 360 miles in 35 days or whatever was largely based on treadmill running. His claim of $5m raised at a conference in the US seems to be based on a syndicate of 100 other people. We all know how charities use hyperbole for fundraising (think, Captain Tom, or the letters in large crossing the screens during Children in Need or Red Nose Day of sums people have pledged [not actually as yet donated!] so either exaggerated or he heard it from someone. Again we don`t know it is fraud per se rather than psychological gee-ing up, as happens in charity `auctions`, with one rich person trying to one-up-manship on another. When I did a 30-mile walk for Oxfam* as a kid, I took around my `sponsorship` form, and noted that people signed up to sponsor me when they saw others they knew had. Again, re his claimed semi-pro football. AIUI he was an amateur league player at one point.

OK, so his PhD was in Physical Education, not Sociology, but Cambridge Uni knew this when they hired him. If Arday was out of his depth, that is on Cambridge if indeed they did `tokenise`´ him.

There were over 221 articles written about Arday in a short space of time by the right wing press, initiated by an openly eugenicist agitator, Nathan Cofnas , who is vehemently anti-EDI (NB: it is not `DEI`, that is American). This is without any proof whatsoever that Arday was a practised `confidence trickster`. After all, you can hardly trick a uni into giving you a PhD and even if you did, you didn`t lie when you applied for your next appointment. Liverpool Uni investigated the plagiarism claim and rejected it. So Arday did no wrong. He says that because of his autistic condition, he adopts mimicry. It is well-known that autistic persons are often wired to not pick up social cues naturally, so they simply watch other people and mimic what is considered appropriate social behaviour.

Now, I have to say, when he said he didn`t learn to read until he was 18 I was rather sceptical he had academic leanings, as all of my academic friends were keen readers from an early age, as was, apparently, Woody Brown (albeit the tales of Thomas Tank & Friends). But then again PE doesn`t require ´brains´.

Let´s get this into perspective, most of the people vilifying Arday aren`t even journalists, just two-bit columnists, such as Julia Hartley- Brewer [_sp?], Sarah Vine and Toby Young, et al. One, Max Pemberton, is a psychiatrist who, most unprofessionally, `diagnosed`Arday from his armchair as a Narcissistic Fantasist (or similar), totally against his professional code of conduct. Toby Young was REJECTED from Oxford because of poor A-Levels. His father, a Baron, got Oxford to accept his educationally lacking son, based on the fact Oxford originally accepted Young`s p!sspoor A-Level results ìn error`, so it had been the honourable thing to do (Young`s father argued).

Cambridge Uni were in the process of investigating the hacks` claims, so before condemning Arday as a cunning conman, one should have waited for the results of the investigation into Arday`s appointment.

ISTM there is still zero evidence that he or Woody Brown (or Brown`s mother) wilfully deceived anyone. Of course, there is a case for unearned merit but that is another topic.

*I only managed about 17 miles and couldn`t walk for days afterwards.

Dude. You wrote a lot of words, and from what I could see most were irrelevant.

You did say that much of the blame rests on the shoulders of Cambridge, and that is true, but that has also been the claims around Woody. That is to say too many people have been accomplices in the fraudulent behaviour and also for making over the top claims, particularly in relation to non-verbal autism.

You wanted to use the case of Jason Arday to say “see! Look! It can happen!” Only to find out that it was mostly made up nonsense.

Arday and Brown are mostly victims in all of this, enabled by people who should have known better, and the case of Arday is sadly an example of people who think they are being kind actually being wildly irresponsible and reckless. Please consider what you are doing here.

 

[catsmate]

For goodness sake, as a severely disabled person, Woody is legally entitled to reasonable adjustments, in his academic endeavours.

What in the name of everything holy, unholy or atheistic is this idiot rant related to?

 

[catsmate]

What evidence other than an angry youtuber and campaigners who want to protect alleged child abusers from claims presented by disabled children and young adults?

Lots of people. Perhaps you should read the thread?