Published on 12, July, 2020
Over the last century, psychoanalysis has suggested that one surprising difference between NT and Autistic is how they mature due to a difference in language and a different Salience Network (Sensory-Perception). A thought about this which can better help is that Autistics being Hyper-Sensory can be more concerned with environment while Typical kids are more concerned with Social. There is nothing wrong with this, as we need both in healthy and safe society. We cannot be everything to everyone: focus on our potential, be ok with and mindful abut limits, no one wants to feel like a failure.
This is a good article explaining that more often than not, we as parents might just lack some absent insight into reconnecting with what it was like to be very small.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/parenting-beyond-power/202307/13-reasons-why-your-child-doesnt-listen
Personal prejudice alert ... I am wary when I hear "psychoanalysis " because it was the psychoanalytic theory that came up with the idea that ASD was caused by "refrigerator mothers" and is a problem with attachment. Clicking on autism on the website links to The Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research - where have we heard that name before? (Bronfenbrenner was a strong believer in the refrigerator mother theory, right up to the 1960s and beyond.) They also seem to be quite keen on ABA. There is some good information and advice too, so maybe I am being too sceptical.
I am not in defence of unethical and fundamentally bad form in any science. Sifting the science from irresponsible use of language can be difficult.
A good skeptic will interrogate the whole process, so yes. Loads of utter nonsense in this bunch. But in most there’s always a bad apple. However, they are usually called out by their own peers and those are the ones I started with!
This is happening still tho. A fundamental quality or element is found and then a formula applied to it which is biased toward one way of doing things. And this is because medicine is not Philosophy.
Self Determination Theory is a good one, where a “hierarchy” of drives/ needs is discovered. And they could’ve stopped there. Because those are worthwhile findings. But instead the authors tied these up with their biased assumptions which may work for a majority of the population ruining the theory. Here is where I’ll suggest it’s important to start to note the difference between what is fundamental to being human and how it then might be applied to NT or Au.
It looks like an interesting theory. Motivation is certainly a factor in kids' behaviour, whether they are NT or ND. One feature of autism, the "special interest" may be intrinsic motivation taken to an extreme. I think the same criticisms may apply as that of Maslow's hierarchy of needs - too often they are seen as prescriptive. An unmet need is a motivator, but we loop in and out of each motivator rather than go through one at a time.