The Autism Industrial Complex

The Autism Industrial Complex

Neuroscientist Elizabeth B. Torres, wrote:
"Autism is at an inflection point today. We are poised for a paradigm shift in autism research, education, and therapies; this book inniates that shift, and does so superbly. In The Autism Industrial Complex: How Branding, Marketing, and Capital Investment Turned Autism into Big Business, we learn about the history and evolution of this multi-billion dollar/year operation. Thanks to this history, we will remember Lovaas, ABA, and behaviourism in general not as a science, but as a branding, rhetoric, and marketing plot that transiently misguided many well-intended parents and professionals, and that in so doing profited with greed, by preying on our human hopes, our trust in science, and our fears."
Close quote.

Autism Speaks persistently spreads the false narrative that autistic people are a tragedy, burden to society, destroy our families, epidemic disease etc...
Autism Speaks and the BCBA masterfully crafted a money scam to profiteer on autistic people, ABA is not only out of date, it's proven pseudoscience by 21st century science.

As recently as 2019 the BACB (ABA leadership board) has been caught by the American Psychological Association practicing publication bias.
Abstract
The “replication crisis” describes recent difficulties in replicating studies in various scientific fields, most notably psychology. The available evidence primarily documents replication failures for group research designs. However, we argue that contingencies of publication bias that led to the “replication crisis” also operate on applied behavior analysis (ABA) researchers who use single-case research designs (SCRD). This bias strongly favors publication of SCRD studies that show strong experimental effect, and disfavors publication of studies that show less robust effect. The resulting research literature may unjustifiably inflate confidence about intervention effects, limit researchers’ ability to delineate intervention boundary conditions, and diminish the credibility of our science.
Close quote.
(Tincani, 2019)
Published online 2019 Mar 18

Further supported by anti-ABA workers like Psychological Bulletin.
www.alfiekohn.org/.../

In April 2023 they stakeholders are having their next Autism Investment Summit.
autisminvestorsummit.com/

"The Autism Investor Summit provides a unique opportunity for autism service providers, investors and key stakeholders to meet in a private setting to discuss the autism services landscape, opportunities for investment and to discuss and learn about best practices and innovation in all areas of autism services."

"OPPORTUNITIES FOR INVESTMENT"

Remember, the services are the ones who gain money bankrupting parents and carers.

Why did Eisenhower warn the nation against the military industrial complex?

1) He feared the dangerous potential for abuse of power in association with ideological monopoly and commercial profiteering.

2) He feared that decisions about military spending would not be driven by the interests of the national security, but by the interests of the high potential for private and corporate profit.

3) He also feared that any human cost of military proliferation would be regarded as insignificant in the face of the industry's enormous profitability.

Notice autistic people are under the very same threats, everyone is a potential consumer of The Autism Industrial Complex.

Professor Alicia Broderick
https://youtu.be/-fxzfuvuek4

Journalist John Summers
www.thenation.com/.../

Parents
  • In interesting if some what American centric set of observations. I am concerned about the rise of ABA in the UK. But I'm not plugged in enough to the medical establishment to say much about how its being received by our own health system.

Reply
  • In interesting if some what American centric set of observations. I am concerned about the rise of ABA in the UK. But I'm not plugged in enough to the medical establishment to say much about how its being received by our own health system.

Children
  • I think the emphasis is more on Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) here, which derives from the same behavioural roots but which is often presented as being more child centred.  As with ABA though, it's not child led and it's not, in terms of its foundational ideas, really person-centred.  Most autistic led training and autistic advocates would advise against it, in my experience anyway.  

    Certainly there was a recent paper highlighting that it's more generally useful for those with learning disabilities, although I'm not sure what they or their parent, carers or friends think about it.  

    community.autism.org.uk/.../231259