Were autistics placed in sanitariums or asylums in the past?

Post Reply New Topic

This really struck me when I thought deeply about it. It reminds me of a story my dad, now in his 70s, told me about his childhood. My dad & I are among the more neurodivergent people in our large extended family, though in modern terms he'd probably still be labeled 'high-functioning'. His parents were a rarity in their generation in that they wouldn't use corporal punishment on their kids, no matter what. However, he told me there was a much scarier threat in his childhood that was everpresent in his mind. When Dad's behavior got beyond my grandma's control, she would drive him past the "children's home" (its real name redacted for privacy reasons) in our hometown and say something like "If you can't behave, they're going to take you from me and you'll live here! Do you want that?"

I honestly never connected the story to autism until now. He did say that none of his brothers or sisters ever got that car ride threat.