Myth of Autism, Judith Guest, Baby Books
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Beyond_Ideologies
Feb 23, 2015, 4:17:45 PM2/23/15
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I think more about Judith Guest's novel, Ordinary People. Many people know of this because it was made into a movie with Mary Tyler Moore and Donald Sutherland. It was also the Directorial Debut for Robert Redford.
http://www.judithguest.com/
The boy who survived the sailing accident, Conrad, suffered from something like PTSD and he ended up spending a month in a psychiatric hospital.
But what surfaces is that his mother idolized the older boy, but she despises Conrad. He seems to represent which is in herself, but terrifies her.
Now this was written back in 1976. Nick Dubin says that they weren't diagnosing people with Asperger's in the US until 1994. I have seen that it wasn't well known until beyond 2000.
Given the way that Autism Spectrum Disorder is being used today, with 1 in 42 boys being given the diagnosis, you could read Conrad, shy and sensitive, as being aspergerian.
You could read lots of people this way.
I am speaking here my own view, not that coming from any of the books I have been reading.
In Lord of the Flies, Simon would be ASD.
In To Kill a Mocking Bird, Arthur Bo Radley would be ASD.
And now Conrad in Ordinary People.
But my view is that this has existed since long before there was any kind of a diagnosis.
In part it is just a reaction to being persecuted, and primarily to maternal rejection.
This is not just what Bruno Bettelheim called Refrigerator Mother. It is more along the lines of what Alice Miller called the Narcissistic Wound. It is inflicted willfully and volitionally. It is the act of someone who deliberately had children in order to use them. It is the primary source of the bullying which will continue in school and the work place and throughout one's life.
Sure, people are different, everyone is unique. But if someone hasn't been able to defend themselves against having their legitimacy destroyed, then they will be prey forever.
I think this is the real importance of Alice Miller. She saw it as being primarily about the Middle Class. She does explain this as it pertains to the German sexual serial killer of children, Jurgen Barsch. Miller ties it to the particularly middle class attitudes of his mother.
It is the result of people who have children to be able to use them.
Now Miller was not able to go much further than this. Just like R. D. Laing before her, she would get lost in regression therapies. This is what such therapies are intended to do. She should have known this.
So then these modern diagnoses are simply another form of bullying, done by white coats. They are something similar to Born Again Christianity and the Recovery Movement. People are to accept the fact that they have a defect, a disorder, a difference. Then all bullying and abuse are forgiven, just so long as they remain pitiful.
I think that in our culture it does pertain to something women reject about men. See, they call it being emotionally withdrawn. But I don't go along with this. I think it is just the case of someone who has decided not to submit to the herd consciousness. But the problem women will have with such a man is that they can't appeal to herd morality in order to control him. Though he might seem weak. He is actually very strong, the real "Alpha Male", as he cannot be controlled. He does not depend upon herd or maternal, or other female approval. So it is impossible to make him perform in harness. He probably is already quite civilized. But you can't domesticate him. So women are terrified and revolted by this, just as Conrad's mother was.
I believe that the writers James Joyce and Jack Kerouac would fit this and today could be diagnosed as aspergerian.
So then of course therapy does nothing. Just total bullshit. And you can't fight back alone. So the answer then is to join forces, build a base of comrades, and then fight back and show no mercy and take no prisoners.
I now that what I am seeing as Autism / Asperger's and where it seems to be coming from actually fits with what the MGTOW folks are saying. They are speaking out against disposability.
http://www.judithguest.com/
The boy who survived the sailing accident, Conrad, suffered from something like PTSD and he ended up spending a month in a psychiatric hospital.
But what surfaces is that his mother idolized the older boy, but she despises Conrad. He seems to represent which is in herself, but terrifies her.
Now this was written back in 1976. Nick Dubin says that they weren't diagnosing people with Asperger's in the US until 1994. I have seen that it wasn't well known until beyond 2000.
Given the way that Autism Spectrum Disorder is being used today, with 1 in 42 boys being given the diagnosis, you could read Conrad, shy and sensitive, as being aspergerian.
You could read lots of people this way.
I am speaking here my own view, not that coming from any of the books I have been reading.
In Lord of the Flies, Simon would be ASD.
In To Kill a Mocking Bird, Arthur Bo Radley would be ASD.
And now Conrad in Ordinary People.
But my view is that this has existed since long before there was any kind of a diagnosis.
In part it is just a reaction to being persecuted, and primarily to maternal rejection.
This is not just what Bruno Bettelheim called Refrigerator Mother. It is more along the lines of what Alice Miller called the Narcissistic Wound. It is inflicted willfully and volitionally. It is the act of someone who deliberately had children in order to use them. It is the primary source of the bullying which will continue in school and the work place and throughout one's life.
Sure, people are different, everyone is unique. But if someone hasn't been able to defend themselves against having their legitimacy destroyed, then they will be prey forever.
I think this is the real importance of Alice Miller. She saw it as being primarily about the Middle Class. She does explain this as it pertains to the German sexual serial killer of children, Jurgen Barsch. Miller ties it to the particularly middle class attitudes of his mother.
It is the result of people who have children to be able to use them.
Now Miller was not able to go much further than this. Just like R. D. Laing before her, she would get lost in regression therapies. This is what such therapies are intended to do. She should have known this.
So then these modern diagnoses are simply another form of bullying, done by white coats. They are something similar to Born Again Christianity and the Recovery Movement. People are to accept the fact that they have a defect, a disorder, a difference. Then all bullying and abuse are forgiven, just so long as they remain pitiful.
I think that in our culture it does pertain to something women reject about men. See, they call it being emotionally withdrawn. But I don't go along with this. I think it is just the case of someone who has decided not to submit to the herd consciousness. But the problem women will have with such a man is that they can't appeal to herd morality in order to control him. Though he might seem weak. He is actually very strong, the real "Alpha Male", as he cannot be controlled. He does not depend upon herd or maternal, or other female approval. So it is impossible to make him perform in harness. He probably is already quite civilized. But you can't domesticate him. So women are terrified and revolted by this, just as Conrad's mother was.
I believe that the writers James Joyce and Jack Kerouac would fit this and today could be diagnosed as aspergerian.
So then of course therapy does nothing. Just total bullshit. And you can't fight back alone. So the answer then is to join forces, build a base of comrades, and then fight back and show no mercy and take no prisoners.
I now that what I am seeing as Autism / Asperger's and where it seems to be coming from actually fits with what the MGTOW folks are saying. They are speaking out against disposability.
**********************************************************************************************
The myth of autism : medicalising men's and boys' social and emotional competence / Sami Timimi, Neil Gardner, and Brian McCabe
Basingstoke, Hampshire [England] ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2011
page 1,
"
Out book does not merely seek to analyze critically current thinking on autism - it challenges the very idea that a wide range of behavioural patterns and hypersensitivities share the same aetiology, course, treatment and outcome. Indeed we question whether today's definition of autism reflects a disorder at all, let alone a genetic, neurobiological one.
Readers should be aware that we are not about to ask you to digest the umpteenth rehashing of the autistic spectrum theme, but are inviting you to dissect it, apply critical appraisal to the current literature and think through the implications of whatever model we choose as an 'explanation' for the diverse set of behavioural presentations currently being categorized as 'autism'. We are aware that the kind of regression that thousands of parents of severely withdrawn children have witnessed is highly unlikely to be explained by social or psychological factors alone. In such cases another agent, whether congenital, prei-natal, or a biological reaction to environmental pathogens, would seem to be at play, resulting in significant impairments across a range of areas of functioning for the individual concerned. However, we question whether the label of autism adds anything to understanding or helping even this group of individuals.
.
.
.
As we grappled with this subject our views developed from a starting point of critiquing the broad idea of ASD to the finishing point of casting doubt over the whole concept. We realize this is contentious and we may be cast as 'villains of the piece' at a time when those fighting for greater recognition of this 'disorder' and more help for those afflicted with it, have ( in their view ) succeeded in bringing much needed public and indeed government attention to this problem. We may even be castigated for causing more stigma by questioning the biological basis of the problems of those diagnosed. Parents and those with the diagnosis, having got used to living with the label and who may have experienced some relief at getting the diagnosis, may feel hurt and let down. We are aware of all these and other real dangers that may become associated with our conviction that autism as a label should be abolished. We can only apologize to anyone who feels this way about our book and assure readers that it is not our intention to reduce services or increase stigma, quite the opposite. We want to see less stigma and better services for those who find themselves on the margins of society. We have come to believe that autism as a label adds to stigma and doesn't help improve services.
"
The above will BE CONTINUED.
But let me just speak for myself, I see that the ASD label is nothing more than another version of Original Sin. The people who put it out and accept it are attached to very conservative social views. I see their writings as saturated with this.
It amounts to exonerating the parents and the bullying oriented schools and admitting to personal failing.
I see maternal rejection as having everything to do with this. It is not just Refrigerator Mothers or Chicken Wire Mothers, it is willful and volitional wounding. And much of it is about women rejecting a certain type of male.
None of this is going to be improved by psychotherapy. Rather it will change when people understand that parental abuse of children is war, and when people start to strike back and avenge the abuse. Only then will we be able to build for ourselves a place in the world, without accepting some nonsense narrative of personal defect.
The above authors will go on to talk about extreme cases which probably do involve biological damage and epilepsy.
Basingstoke, Hampshire [England] ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2011
page 1,
"
Out book does not merely seek to analyze critically current thinking on autism - it challenges the very idea that a wide range of behavioural patterns and hypersensitivities share the same aetiology, course, treatment and outcome. Indeed we question whether today's definition of autism reflects a disorder at all, let alone a genetic, neurobiological one.
Readers should be aware that we are not about to ask you to digest the umpteenth rehashing of the autistic spectrum theme, but are inviting you to dissect it, apply critical appraisal to the current literature and think through the implications of whatever model we choose as an 'explanation' for the diverse set of behavioural presentations currently being categorized as 'autism'. We are aware that the kind of regression that thousands of parents of severely withdrawn children have witnessed is highly unlikely to be explained by social or psychological factors alone. In such cases another agent, whether congenital, prei-natal, or a biological reaction to environmental pathogens, would seem to be at play, resulting in significant impairments across a range of areas of functioning for the individual concerned. However, we question whether the label of autism adds anything to understanding or helping even this group of individuals.
.
.
.
As we grappled with this subject our views developed from a starting point of critiquing the broad idea of ASD to the finishing point of casting doubt over the whole concept. We realize this is contentious and we may be cast as 'villains of the piece' at a time when those fighting for greater recognition of this 'disorder' and more help for those afflicted with it, have ( in their view ) succeeded in bringing much needed public and indeed government attention to this problem. We may even be castigated for causing more stigma by questioning the biological basis of the problems of those diagnosed. Parents and those with the diagnosis, having got used to living with the label and who may have experienced some relief at getting the diagnosis, may feel hurt and let down. We are aware of all these and other real dangers that may become associated with our conviction that autism as a label should be abolished. We can only apologize to anyone who feels this way about our book and assure readers that it is not our intention to reduce services or increase stigma, quite the opposite. We want to see less stigma and better services for those who find themselves on the margins of society. We have come to believe that autism as a label adds to stigma and doesn't help improve services.
"
The above will BE CONTINUED.
But let me just speak for myself, I see that the ASD label is nothing more than another version of Original Sin. The people who put it out and accept it are attached to very conservative social views. I see their writings as saturated with this.
It amounts to exonerating the parents and the bullying oriented schools and admitting to personal failing.
I see maternal rejection as having everything to do with this. It is not just Refrigerator Mothers or Chicken Wire Mothers, it is willful and volitional wounding. And much of it is about women rejecting a certain type of male.
None of this is going to be improved by psychotherapy. Rather it will change when people understand that parental abuse of children is war, and when people start to strike back and avenge the abuse. Only then will we be able to build for ourselves a place in the world, without accepting some nonsense narrative of personal defect.
The above authors will go on to talk about extreme cases which probably do involve biological damage and epilepsy.
******************************************************************
The myth of autism : medicalising men's and boys' social and emotional competence / Sami Timimi, Neil Gardner, and Brian McCabe
Basingstoke, Hampshire [England] ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2011
Continuing to read this. They go into depth about the development of childhood, during the industrial age. There is no way to look at something like childhood autism without first understanding how childhood developed.
Of course they are drawing from Philippe Aries's 1962 "Centuries of Childhood". He is talking about how much different it was during the middle ages, when there really was no such thing as childhood.
Then of course it shifts, first with John Locke, and then with Jacques Rousseau.
And then getting into the second half of the 19th Century, came the idea that all children should be in school. For one thing, this was the beginning of working class movements and unrest. Middle and upper classes were concerned about social unrest and the need to maintain order. Middle class campaigners voiced the fear that the "natural order of parents", and particularly of fathers, was being undermined by the demand for child labor in the factories at the expense of adult males.
But also the growing economic success of industrial capitalism had resulted in the need for a more educated, really a literate and numerate, work force.
quoting from the text "
Before the Second World War, Western society still viewed child-rearing mainly in terms of discipline and authority of the parents (particularly the father.
.
.
.
During and after the Second World War anxiety about the effect on children of discipline and authority increased, the concern being that authoritarian discipline could lead to the sort of nightmare society that Nazi Germany represented.
.
.
.
The 'permissiveness' model saw parent-child relationships more in terms of pleasure and play than discipline and authority. Parents now had to give up their traditional authority in order for children to develop individuality, autonomy and self-esteem. In addition, while the pre-war model prepared children for the workplace within a society of rations and economic depressions, the post-war model prepared them to become pleasure-seeking consumers within a prosperous new economy.
Childhood had now become a key metaphor through which adults spoke about their own social and political concerns. Thus permissiveness as regards child-rearin was allowing not only new identities to be given to children, but also to adults.
"
There is of course a great deal more than this. I am just excerpting. But now to talk specifically about the history of Autism, say before Leo Kanner.
Bleuler in 1911 coined the term 'autistic' to denote schizophrenic individuals who were catatonic and evidenced no interest in other human beings.
Carl Gustav Jung had earlier worked with Bleuler and introduced the well known personality types, 'extroverts' and 'introverts'. Jung however did not suggest strict classification, since he believed each person has tendencies in both directions, although one direction generally predominates.
Basingstoke, Hampshire [England] ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2011
Continuing to read this. They go into depth about the development of childhood, during the industrial age. There is no way to look at something like childhood autism without first understanding how childhood developed.
Of course they are drawing from Philippe Aries's 1962 "Centuries of Childhood". He is talking about how much different it was during the middle ages, when there really was no such thing as childhood.
Then of course it shifts, first with John Locke, and then with Jacques Rousseau.
And then getting into the second half of the 19th Century, came the idea that all children should be in school. For one thing, this was the beginning of working class movements and unrest. Middle and upper classes were concerned about social unrest and the need to maintain order. Middle class campaigners voiced the fear that the "natural order of parents", and particularly of fathers, was being undermined by the demand for child labor in the factories at the expense of adult males.
But also the growing economic success of industrial capitalism had resulted in the need for a more educated, really a literate and numerate, work force.
quoting from the text "
Before the Second World War, Western society still viewed child-rearing mainly in terms of discipline and authority of the parents (particularly the father.
.
.
.
During and after the Second World War anxiety about the effect on children of discipline and authority increased, the concern being that authoritarian discipline could lead to the sort of nightmare society that Nazi Germany represented.
.
.
.
The 'permissiveness' model saw parent-child relationships more in terms of pleasure and play than discipline and authority. Parents now had to give up their traditional authority in order for children to develop individuality, autonomy and self-esteem. In addition, while the pre-war model prepared children for the workplace within a society of rations and economic depressions, the post-war model prepared them to become pleasure-seeking consumers within a prosperous new economy.
Childhood had now become a key metaphor through which adults spoke about their own social and political concerns. Thus permissiveness as regards child-rearin was allowing not only new identities to be given to children, but also to adults.
"
There is of course a great deal more than this. I am just excerpting. But now to talk specifically about the history of Autism, say before Leo Kanner.
Bleuler in 1911 coined the term 'autistic' to denote schizophrenic individuals who were catatonic and evidenced no interest in other human beings.
Carl Gustav Jung had earlier worked with Bleuler and introduced the well known personality types, 'extroverts' and 'introverts'. Jung however did not suggest strict classification, since he believed each person has tendencies in both directions, although one direction generally predominates.
******************************************************************************
I'm going to make a bit of a digression here to look at something pertaining to Myers-Briggs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers%E2%80%93Briggs_Type_Indicator
Myself being INTJ.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INTJ
I had read before that INTJ's are people who as children often will not want to be at gatherings with relatives, as they can sense that there are tensions there. That was certainly me.
Well look how just making a first search gives me so much material linking INTJ and Autism / Aspergers.
http://intjforum.com/showthread.php?t=8487
http://personalitycafe.com/intj-forum-scientists/8493-link-between-autism-intj.html
and also connecting it to enneagram type 5
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers%E2%80%93Briggs_Type_Indicator
Myself being INTJ.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INTJ
I had read before that INTJ's are people who as children often will not want to be at gatherings with relatives, as they can sense that there are tensions there. That was certainly me.
Well look how just making a first search gives me so much material linking INTJ and Autism / Aspergers.
http://intjforum.com/showthread.php?t=8487
http://personalitycafe.com/intj-forum-scientists/8493-link-between-autism-intj.html
and also connecting it to enneagram type 5
*****************************************************************************
So in 1943 Leo Kanner observed the behavior of 11 children and suggested that their symptoms formed a unique 'syndrome', which he termed 'autistic disturbances of effective contact'.
The following year, another psychiatrist, Hans Asperger, published 'Autistic Psychopathy in Childhood'
Asperger's paper, written in German during the war, was largely ignored.
from the text "
Kanner (1943) reported that as the children approached puberty their lack of sociability diminished to some degree. He also reported that some of the parents also lacked expressive affect, noting that some had raised their children in a formulaic way using child rearing textbooks.
The following year, another psychiatrist, Hans Asperger, published 'Autistic Psychopathy in Childhood'
Asperger's paper, written in German during the war, was largely ignored.
from the text "
Kanner (1943) reported that as the children approached puberty their lack of sociability diminished to some degree. He also reported that some of the parents also lacked expressive affect, noting that some had raised their children in a formulaic way using child rearing textbooks.
BO
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