When Bruno Bettelheim was presented with new evidence that countered his own, he dismissed it out of hand. Because of his popularity, the public followed right along with his dismissal, just like sheeple.
Could this phenomenon of mindless following be prevalent in other areas of life? More specifically, in the public opinions of autism and its affect on people?
I found this video very disturbing and sad. After thinking about it I still can't imagine why, after accusing the mothers of the autistic children of neglecting them, the doctors would "treat" the children by isolating them! What was the logic behind this so-called treatment?
What doesn't make sense to me is why, if autism was seen as a disorder caused by isolation and frigidity, doctors decided to treat it by completely isolating the child. Why try to correct the problem by perpetuating the cause?
How can a mother be blamed for being unloving or disconnected when she has another child that does not suffer from autism? What would Bettelheim or other Dr.'s of that time say she was able to connect with one son, but not the other?
In the movie one of the mothers had two kids. One her kids was "normal" and the other was autistic. How can they blame this mother for making her kid autistic when she's obviously capable of raising a non-autistic child? I just can't understand this logic.
The psychiatrists blamed the mothers for their children with autism because apparently the mothers were cold and emotionally inaccessible. Why then as treatment did they isolate the children from their mothers? Aren't they just reinforcing the isolation by taking the kids away from their families?
Do you think that the isolation they kept these children in was just another form of mental institution? It was stated in the movie that the treatment wasn't working but it was continued anyway but what was the reasoning behind the isolation? Why was it decided that children who seemed distant should be put in isolation? It doesn't really make sense does it?
Psychologists stipulated that children were made Autistic by "refrigerator mothers" at the time. How would an isolation treatment be any different if they are locked away in a room would that not produce the same effect psychologists blamed?
When the autistic children were put in the schools, they were isolated from everyone. How did that affect the children emotionally and did it make their symptoms worse?
