Massie's work and perspective has evolved over time. However, I suspect there was tons of pressure from peers and parents to come around on this issue, wouldn't you guess? I will try my best to repeat what I said in a rather long email on Sunday evening. Massie never thought "blame" was part of the issue at all! He provided the family histories of the parents and felt strongly that they were trying the best that they could. I'm baffled at our willingness to embrace the notion that parents are reacting to "subtle signs of autism," when such has no empirical support. Having recently also checked on Massie's work, he clearly is strongly supporting early intervention and I think, at this point, isn't interested in exploring any further that very dangerous and politically incorrect notion of parental interaction being a factor (just one factor) in the development of autism. And again, I feel the pressure to avoid ANY discussion of the possible impact of early experience on various types of emotional disorders is committing a travesty against the science of human behavior as well as a serious disservice to the parents and children in generations to come.
Joan [email protected] > I don't know anything about Massie's work, but did a little googling to > see what was out there. From what I found, it seems that Massie isn't > taking as strong a stance as Joan Warmbold suggests regarding the question > of whether parents are contributing to the disorder or simply picking up > on early cues from the child. This quote is from the web page on which > Massie is selling his video, so I assume it was written (or at least > approved) by him: > > By the 1970s, a sufficient number of families had made home movies of > their children so that there existed a small number of family-made home > movies of the infancies of children who were later diagnosed with autism. > Our project collected a series of these movies and analyzed them for 1) > Childrens first signs of atypical behavior in the first six months of > life, and 2) Failure of social relatedness and cognitive growth in the > second half of the first year through the third year of life. > Findings point to the presence of a prodromal autistic syndrome prior to > established autism. The presence of pre-autistic symptoms indicates the > importance of beginning treatment as early as possible, in the first three > years of life. > To this end, the presentation also discusses components of treatment > approaches that have normalized the children so that they no longer meet > criteria for autistic spectrum disorders. > > > ________________________________________ > From: [email protected] [[email protected]] > Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2009 12:07 PM > To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) > Subject: Re: [tips] Massie and autism > > As Allen noted, it seems more plausible that the parents in Massie's > study are reacting to subtle signs of autism in their children rather > than creating them. It's also possible that it is genes that are > responsible both for the autism of the children and the claimed > unresponsive behaviour of the parents. Admittedly, Massie's proposal is > kinder than Bettelheim's pernicious pseudoscience, but it still lays a > heavy load on the parents. It's best to be careful with such claims. > > Stephen > --- > To make changes to your subscription contact: > > Bill Southerly ([email protected]) > > --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
