zemanski wrote:
"Refrigerator mothers" were proposed by Bettleheim and Kanner as an explanation for why children "became" autistic in the 1950s when the genetics and biomedics of autism were not understood. . .
Ah yes, Bruno Bettelheim. Even though the man himself died in the early 1990s, his ideas are a dragon which will need to be slayed from time to time.
First off, Bettelheim was an academic fraud who did not have the credentials he implied he had. And then, he would often hit and sometimes beat the children. He emotionally belittled them in various ways and he threatened them. I'll put up a couple of examples and let that suffice.
Quote:
http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/br ... oid=875450One time I made the mistake of telling Bettelheim, in a quiet tone of voice, that I thought there were too many restrictions at the school. Bettelheim beat me for that. Another time, he dragged me out of the shower with no clothes on and beat me in front of a roomful of people. I hadn't even said anything to him and I wasn't expecting to be punished for anything. I believe that he simply did this to break my spirit because he didn't want me to have a mind of my own. It wasn't just me. Just about every child or teenager there was treated this way on a regular basis.
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See also the partially available google book:
And They Call it Help: The Psychiatric Policing of America's Children, by Louise Armstrong, 1993
http://alturl.com/8w9js <--short url
Quote:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1990 ... l-terror/3Richard Younker, a photojournalist in Chicago, remembers how he and a dormitory mate, both Cub Scouts, decorated their wall with a plaque illustrating how to tie knots. ``Dr. B said to the whole dorm: `Look, the two boys who are so twisted up inside show the whole world by putting knots on the wall,` `` Younker says.
By Bettelheim`s therapeutic rules, children were supposed to share all their feelings and thoughts with their counselors. But the school also labeled some feelings and thoughts good, or ``orthogenic`` in the institution`s jargon, and others bad or ``unorthogenic.`` Given Bettelheim`s quick hands and sharp tongue, his patients knew the consequences should they let slip an ``unorthogenic`` idea.
And so, yes indeed, even though the man himself is dead, a dragon we will need to slay from time to time.
16 Jan 2014, 7:34 pm
