Table of Contents

Introduction .- Toward a Social Understanding of Mental Health .- The Problem of Adaptation in Socializing People of Difference  .- Social Therapy and Family Play .- Shakespeare and Autism: Exploring Expression, Communication and Re-envisioning the Inclusive Community .- We Don't Want to Fit In: A Reflection on the Revolutionary Inclusive Theatre Practices of The Miracle Project and Actionplay for Adolescents on the Autism Spectrum .- The DisAbility Project: A Model for Autism-Specific Creativity and Civic Engagement within the Broader Context of Difference .- Curious Incidents: Pretend Play, Presence and Performance Pedagogies in Encounters with Autism .- The Collaborative Online Anime Community as Positive Social Updraft .- Composing Poetry and A Writer’s Identity: Positive Social Updrafts in a Community of Writers .- An Autistic Life, Animated through the World of Disney: A Loving Autoethnography. 

About the Author

Peter Smagorinsky is Distinguished Research Professor of English Education at The University of Georgia, USA. His research considers the notion of “mental health” in terms of cultivating the assets of people of anomalous frames of mind.