COURTESY OF KING'S COLLEGE LONDON
Michael Rutter, a pioneering child psychiatrist, died at the age of 88 on October 23. He is most widely known for his work uncovering the fact that autism has a genetic component and his practice of talking directly to his young patients—a novel approach at the time.
Rutter was born August 15, 1933, in Lebanon, where his English father worked as a doctor for a short time. He was sent to live with a different family in New Jersey at the beginning of World War II to escape the violence, and returned once the war was over.
He planned to become a medical doctor like his father, The New York Times reports; at the same time, his studies made him curious about the brain and how it works. He was advised to think about child psychiatry. In 1955 he graduated from the University of Birmingham ...
