FeralChildren.com says In one chapter of this work, the author draws a parallel between feral children and autism.

Product Description The first edition of Autism: Explaining the Enigma quickly became a classic because it provided the first satisfactory psychological account of what happens in the mind of a person with autism. The book proposed that the key problems were an inability to recognize and think about thoughts (theory of mind), and an inability to integrate pieces of information into coherent wholes (central coherence). It suggested that from this beginning, problems of communication, social interaction, and flexibility follow as the complex interactions of human development unfold.
This updated edition reports on how this explanation has stood the test of time. A new chapter outlines developments in neuropsychological research that have taken place since the book was first published and reviews the growing body of work on the neurological basis of autism. The accessible style and structure of the original edition have been retained, with information and references updated throughout.

Amazon customer review © Having recently been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, I have been collecting books on autism and asperger's syndrome, and this one is one of the best in my collection. I like the way Uta Frith writes, she always has lots of data, hers are always good solid scientific books. One interesting thing is the picture on the cover. First, I thought well, it's just some picture Frith likes, and then in the book she starts analyzing it. Wow, it's about some people working to cheat another person! This is held up to be some kind of healthy normality that we poor people with autism spectrum disorders can't enjoy. Well I want no part of it. To me it's far more interesting to look at the clothing the people are wearing in the picture, I have spent hours looking at it - the clothing of that time is incredible, and further, the artist had to have good enough paints to reproduce it in the painting. Now that's interesting! I guess that's a lot of the difference right there, here's Uta Frith crying in her Wheaties because people like me are behind in appreciating cheating, and meanwhile I'm more interested in how incredible the picture is visually, and have no desire to cheat anyone. Uta Frith quotes some fairy tale about a mermaid who tried to become human and never could walk right and hurt all the time, and wasn't liked anyway among humans, etc. and compares that to autism-spectrum people, which isn't very nice, and she also talks about autism like it's physically painful or something, which it's not, but all in all I still really like her books because they're scientific. I agree with the lack of theory of mind stuff and now that I know the exact definitions of the words, I agree that at least in my case I have sympathy but not empathy. I think this book can be a big help to someone who wants to understand autism.

Amazon customer review © This is a book for researchers primarily. It introduces Frith's theory of weak central coherence as an underlying mechanism in autism. The theory runs (in a nutshell) that autistic individuals do not exhibit context appropriate responses to situation, events, etc. Relevance theory (cf. Sperber & Wilson) oils the wheels of Frith's theory.
The book opens with a long exegesis on a historical case and performs more than a bit of post mortem diagnosis. Such rational reconstructions of the past can be either very rivetting or tiresome. I wasn't convinced that the story avoided the latter pitfall. More enjoyable if shortened.
The rest of the book concentrates on theories of autism and their testability. The tussle between theory of mind (cf. Baron-Cohen's book: Mindblindness) is discussed and gives a brief foretaste of disputes that dominated the nineties'. However, the difficulty that central coherence itself faces is how to shape it into a coherent scientific theory? Frith doesn't entirely skirt this issue and there is much to be gained from simply reflecting on her approach to theory development.
Be warned that lighting up the research stage is a major focus of the work, and this will limit it's appeal. My final comment is not to buy this edition of the book, but to wait for the June 2003 edition. It can only be better.