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
It’s also hard to justify that the psychoanalytic pushes for ‘autism as a form of neurosis’, had an abundance of consideration for dignity, when they stamped desperate parents with stigmatising labels like ‘refrigerator mother’..
I found it a struggle to accept, they didn’t make unwavering-statement or appeal to certainty, especially when you consider that Creaks Nine Points exist..
I have tried to make sense of this post, but I am struggling. Please would you explain what you mean by the phrase " They didn’t make hard unwavering statements nor appeal to certainty. It’s the few who weren’t making breakthroughs and just experimenting for their egos who were spoiling the lot, but to actually read Freud, Jung, Fromm and Adler, one can find a good “Defence against the Dark Arts”.
Sooo, what you’re saying is, that we should revisit ‘Refrigeration mothering’ as root-cause for the warping of normal-people into people who are ‘clinically-autistic’ and ‘clinically-adhd’ etc.. and psychotic if you’re going in that direction..I have to say that I fervently-disagree, I don’t think that egos are why psychology was ruled out of root-cause autism, I think psychological-disorder was proven over-decades to be a symptom, and at great-cost to autists and their close-carers..
If we look at Autism as a potential for being, underneath Personality and Inclination as a biological “wiring”, where there are Human elements which everyone shares such as Survival Mechanisms, or under duress and extreme difficulty, Survival Mode, then most concepts make sense if applied different.
from what I’ve read, Neuroscience is only proving a great deal of theories or helping to revise some, but early grounded researchers weren’t callous, arrogant, and casual with human life. They sought to help others thrive and spoke with dignity in their work. They didn’t make hard unwavering statements nor appeal to certainty. It’s the few who weren’t making breakthroughs and just experimenting for their egos who were spoiling the lot, but to actually read Freud, Jung, Fromm and Adler, one can find a good “Defence against the Dark Arts”.
However, genetic research is finding we all have the “Autism Gene”. Not the thing that disables us, but what needs to be shown now is under what circumstances the Autistic, ADHD and other differences can thrive. I believe this is the next step.
This post, however is about Sensible Parenting. About understanding what’s human and connects us, about not being offended by your child but seeing them as someone who is capable of reason and flourishes in their unique ways when we understand them and treat them humanely.
Yeah.. I did mean psychology as a whole, which is not to say that or don’t believe in psychology, I just mean that it doesn’t come before neurology where autism is concerned. I do believe that live takes its toll and that nurturing occurs, but if you fail to consider that a person has a social impairment before looking at behaviours, you’re speculating at best. I mean ‘refrigerator mothering’ was a solid speculation, before you consider autism, but with autism you can see that parents can be cold or exploitative with their child in the face of odd and unrewarding behaviour. ‘Refrigerator mothering’ can be a factor in childhood development, at consequently the behaviour and psychology that one manifests, but it’s doesn’t play a role in the root causes of autism and as such I incomplete if conflated with neurology.
Excuse me for being pedantic - I am autistic after all - but did you mean psychodynamic theory rather than all-encompassing "psychology" ? I am very much a believer in a psycho-social model. Freud's archives were closed for a hundred years ofter his death. A lot of people suggest that when they are opened, much of his work will prove to be at best speculative. I believe that one could start with basic biology and chemistry and test neurological theory. I am not sure how one could falsify Freud's belief in the id, ego and superego by experiment. It is like belief in the Father, Son and Holy Ghost; if you believe then it is truth that does not need proof.
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.
That’s really more of a neurological-discussion, when we’re talking about sensitivities and processing; I believe that psychological-issues only really have a place in talk of comorbidity. Otherwise we risk conflating development/psychology/behaviour with the root-causes of autism, which as Ian pointed-out, was quite-decisively ruled out as a root-cause over-decades of scrutiny. There was a whole-wave of misery caused by the conflating of psychology with autism.
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.
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.