Published on 12, July, 2020
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 Autism Speaks and the BCBA masterfully crafted a money scam to profiteer on autistic people, ABA is not only out of date, it's proven pseudoscience by 21st century science.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. AbstractThe “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/.../
Daniel,
Unfortunately the way our society is structured means that most things are marketed and marketable. I like to believe that the majority of people are genuine and wanting to help each other though. I'm not sure how ABA has been used in different cases or what the individual experience of it is. All I know it that in order to function in society, there are certain behaviours that are deemed acceptable.
My daughter is Autistic and I have many traits but no diagnosis. I explained to her at an early age that she'd need to find different ways of stimming because other people would not understand her need to do so. It saddens me but I know how some people can be. I guess this is a kind of positive reinforcement so she will not be bullied by those who do not understand Autism. It's my way of protecting her but doesn't mean I am modifying her behaviour in a negative way because she can be free and herself when she's with me but we both have to act a certain way in public. Sad but true. What I find upsetting is that folks have to do this in order to "fit" into society and the people that aren't able to control their behaviours are labelled unfavourably by a society that doesn't understand. :-(
I more than strongly disagree with you about fitting in, you immediately fall in the logical fallacy of the bandwagon.
Women aren’t allowed jobs, slavery, racism, discrimination and more were deemed “socially significant” behaviour, you are suggesting if society chooses to be evil and immoral we should all be evil and immoral people. You are going to have to justify your idea that it’s better to stop your daughter stimming, you’re actually claiming we should approve bullies bullying people but not approve stimming, why not modify the bullies?
When you claim we need to conform what are you actually saying? You’re saying to people “stop being who you are” which illustrates society is so hypocritical, it claims to equally value everyone and directly does the opposite wishing to hurt people.
I will not conform to your immoral idea that I must devalue and discriminate a minority and praise bullies for bullying someone. Your ideas are the same as Ole Ivar Lovaas’s.
I am fine with you disagreeing with me but I do not appreciate your aggressive tone. I am unsure of why you have so drastically judged me and taken my comment so angrily.
That's why there is a need for what in the civil service we used to call evaluation. We used to talk about it a lot but rarely did it. It's where you go back and look at old policy and see if it actually achieved it aims. As far as I know no one is going doing research into ABA and other behavioural therapy approaches to autism to see if they are damaging. Or at least if that work is being done its very low profile at the moment.
PeterActually just realised the time, so pls forgive me if this is the last reply I make for a good long while. (As soon as the Other Half gets home we will turn off our devices, shut the door to the world and get comfy for Xmas Eve + Day and boxing day.) Hope you have a good Xmas.
Peter said:Only the theories that stand up to repeated attempts to prove them wrong are considered valid. I do think psychology as a study could use more of that approach.
In that regard we certainly agree. I suspect the reluctance however is (abeit rightly so) an ethical one, as to test those therories in psychoanalysis would require literal human guinea pigs and that risks a lot of potential harm. Therefore I think the progress is slower as they are forced to await data as it occurs naturally and they must wait until they gain a big enough data pool before they can claim any firm conclusions.