Autism in France: Psychoanalysis, Packing, Other Travesties

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Well there is not only Paris in France.

Living in France, I can testify that in psychology, there are completely mad theories about the mind. I studied psychology for 3 years. In some fields, of course, it's more sensical, for example in cognitive psychology. But in clinical psychology, it was Lacan & Freud non sense.

Well Alex, I would strongly encourage you to eat snails. I have eaten snails while in Paris on a work trip, the snails are a bit rubbery but they taste nice with the garlic butter on them.

I would like to share with you all the fact that the ravings of Freud and Lacan are unscientific, Popper quite rightly point out that the attempts of the Marxists and the Freudians to explain everything after the event using their ideas are not scientific. I think that the comments of "Mystic Meg" from the national lottery show or some other newspaper astrologer are no more / no less scientific than the writings of Freud / Lacan

Snails are fun to look at and good to eat. Of course, with the same snail, you cannot do both.

And that's the kind of approach I'm hoping to find, where people just take it in stride. Okay, so some of us are on the Asperger's-Autism Spectrum. We still have a lot to contribute if we all can just be open to a range of human differences.

Here's a link which also includes the film.

http://commonhealth.wbur.org/2012/01/co ... in-france/

I think a lot of people still "go" on street corners.

In regards to the weighted blankets: the rule I know is 1/10th of your weight plus a pound. My blanket is 17 pounds and I love it.

We're not talking weighted blankets, we're talking packing: a child wrapped in freezing wet sheets against his will or persuaded to accept (through harassment) , wrapped like a mummy, unable to free himself, and generally guarded by 3 adults, except in some cases as we've seen .
Balneotherapy: children ankle deep in water "playing", bathing suits are OPTIONAL (non verbal kids naked with no possibility of complaining obviously or tell their parents), and adults sitting there and NOT interacting at all (they can't, they have to analyze the kids' every move, as in: "he threw the ball towards the drain, I think he is trying to tell us something about his bottom", and I'm not exagerating.)
Weighted blankets are cool, I want one. But no, we don't have them in france.

without the existence of autism we would have lost many great artists and scientific luminaries throughtout the ages and without its side-effets such as compulsion and single-minded fervour a lot of great figures in history would never have existed, autism is s spectrum bases condition and every case is unique and there is no place for sweeping statements in discussions realting to asds

Ediself, I've been wondering about this for a long time but I wonder if it is time to start questioning psychology and psychiatry as a whole. They have a list of disorders in their DSM. Where are actual objective and scientific tests for any of these disorders including aspergers and autism? The psychologists just go by their own subjective perceptions and opinions when making their diagnoses. They are thinking of tightening the critieria for aspergers by the end of this year in the dsm-v. How reliable and valid is psychology and psychiatry? http://course1.winona.edu/lgray/el626/MandEtext3.html

If we all went to 10 different psychologists would we all receive the same diagnosis or would we receive different diagnoses and maybe up to 10 different diagnoses?

One of my loved ones is at least on 10 different psychiatric drugs maybe 20. If there are truly chemical imbalances then what exactly is out of balance? What exactly is the correct chemical balance all human beings must have? What chemicals must the human brain have exactly? Are there any objective and scientific tests to truly tell if there is a chemical imbalance? If the disorders in the dsm are seriously brain disorders why aren't all of the patients seeing neurologists? Don't the neurologists understand the human brain the best out of all medical doctors?

The brain is a complex thing. For example, imagine that you are excited by something. You may say that this excitement is not the average state of the human brain, so you could take drugs to calm you down. But this does not make sense, being excited is not bad, and if you want to be more calm, you can understand why you are excited to see if there is really a good reason etc.

Using drugs for the brain is considering that there are only a few parameters whereas the brain has an big number of parameters. In fact, it is more about structures than value of some parameter. See what I mean ?

One of our "deputés", Daniel Fasquelle, (not sure what the equivalent is in other countries ) is proposing a law to forbid (FORBID ) the use of psychoanalysis as "treatment " of autism . It will probably never pass since the psychologists and psychiatric lobby is very powerful , but it's another step towards awareness .
About drugs and the brain , I can't answer , I'm not even sure whether emotions precede the hormonal release or if they are a consequence of them ,in which case reasoning could be the main trigger of emotions ....So you can see i'm no neurobiologist

This is where traditional psychoanalysis attempts to give big, complex, meaning-laden interpretations to events. And usually these are mere guesses.

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Yes, the film should be part of the discussion. Yes, it should be free of censorship. But it may not get everything right either. For example, in the beginning it said something like that around the year 2000 someone demonstrated autism is caused by something in the brains temporal lode (?). something like that, and it surprised me how definite this claim was, for I don't think things are that definite at all.

PS In the above link, the film is now listed as private. I do hope it's available somewhere.

I think describing traits that tend to cluster together is valuable, as long as we don't try to make too much of it.

For like I've heard people sometimes say here at WP, you've met one person on the spectrum, you've met one person on the spectrum.

Now, I am open to medication for both anxiety and depression. I myself have struggled with depression, haven't yet tried antidepressants, but next time I might. (I might have tried Prozac in 1989 if the damn psychiatrist I was seeing had not been so nasty about the whole thing.)

As I have read, something like Prozac might work great for some people and not do a thing for others.
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/aug/03 ... ug-choice3

How would a person know this in advance if someone didn't tell them? Well, that's why I think it is important to help educate ourselves and others.

And sometimes it's also important to come down off an antidepressant in stages even if it doesn't seem to be working.
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/aug/03 ... ing-drugs3

And a regular doctor like an internist or family practitioner can also prescribe antidepressants. It is a person's choice who to see.

I would not be surprised that they are using Communist Era Romanian methods of handling people with disabilities, as their Color TV system was French developed, and a lot of the cars made their were of French design. I wonder if they get their training from Romanian orphanage workers like the one that tried to kill Strapples on WP before he was adopted, as they are brutal.

Hi,

I'm new on here, and I am from France. I possibly have Aspergers Syndrome though I am not a hundred per cent sure. I was born in the 80s, a time when diagnosis for conditions on the autism spectrum was not developed, though I have to say a doctor mentioned I probably had some form of autism when I was like 3. My parents were afraid to investigate any further and they were ashamed. They used to blame me for being "different", but I think my mother also blamed herself. In the 80s, it seemed like it was always your mother's "fault" if you had such a condition. Years later, well into the 90s, friends of my parents' had a little girl with AS, that lady was blamed right left and centre, by family, then by her daughter's preschool, for the condition.

Whether I have AS or not myself, I am dyspraxic, something that the French seemed to have never heard of, and denied. My parents were denied a GP official diagnosis that might have allowed for me to have more time to complete exams that required coordination or a sense of space in school, exams such as ones in Physical Education, Maths or Geography.

I suffer from chronic depression because it is something that runs in the family. It may also have been a consequence of my AS not being recognized. I am a lesbian and was repeatedly told by psychiatrists that if I were straight, I would not be depressive (?) A pshychiatrist even had the nerves to tell me that at a time I was particularly at risk of suicide, and anorexic.

On the other hand, my perfectly healthy classmates in schools all had to go through speech therapy, it seemed to be the fashion of the time in my school. Everyone who was a bit weird (a tomboy, shy, not good in school etc), had to go.

The French health system, as far as mental health is concerned, seems more worried about pressing on certain treatments according to a certain agenda, a certain ethos or a certain (normative and/or homophobic) view of what society is supposed to be.

I don't live in France anymore so I don't know if things have improved recently. What I do know is that for the past ten years, wheat and gluten have made me very sick. I still have a French GP but she refuses to send me for coeliac disease testing "unless I agree to start eating bread and wheat again for three weeks before the testing". Hum, no doctor, because if I were to eat that much bread, I would not be able to wake up for work in the morning, I'd be too sick.

Hi there,

I am fascinated by the French take on dyslexia, dyspraxia and autistic spectrum. I knew that the French intelligentsia etc... psychoanalysts etc... were v much involved in promoting Lacan, but until I saw this film I had no idea to what extent psychiatry and psychology had also been damaged by these outdated ideas.

I would love to meet the documentarist - does anyone know how to get in touch with her by the way ? Would like to send her my support and gratittude for what she is doing.

I was interested to read your message Litzah, I think it would be good if you posted it also on the introductions section in case it doesn't get viewed. Welcome to WP !

Like you I have to avoid some stuff - with me its mostly caffeine and yeasty bread...