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MalchikBrodyaga
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13 May 2018, 8:57 pm

Even though "refrigirator mother" theory is wrong, its logical conclusion would be to treat autistics with excessive kindness in order to "undo" what refrigirator mother had supposedly done. Yet, they say that Kanner harmed his patients. So did he decide that since their mothers have harmed them, he should harm them some more? Or what was the logic?

In any case, all guessing aside, what was the "actual" therapies he was subjecting them to? What was his rationalization behind those therapies and in what way were they harmful?



B19
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13 May 2018, 9:29 pm

There are various books that answer this, however in my view, "Neurotribes" is the best value and most readable account of various historical phases and Kanner's ideas are thoroughly covered in it.

Kanner was of the group that considered AS people uneducable and that they should be put away in institutions "for their own good". Perhaps Rosemary Kennedy was one such. If so, it didn't seem to do her much good.

One of Steve Silberman's friends was actually diagnosed by Kanner and his mother was told to put him in an institution.
(The friend likes to point out that his mother did sent him to an institution - it was Yale, where he flourished..)



MalchikBrodyaga
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13 May 2018, 9:40 pm

B19 wrote:
(The friend likes to point out that his mother did sent him to an institution - it was Yale, where he flourished..)


So then some of Kanner's cases were, in fact, high functioning? Or are you saying he was low functioning at the time when Kanner diagnosed him and then became high functioning later on?



B19
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13 May 2018, 9:42 pm

I am reporting what Kanner thought of autistic children per se, and how they should be "dealt with".



MalchikBrodyaga
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13 May 2018, 9:45 pm

B19 wrote:
I am reporting what Kanner thought of autistic children per se, and how they should be "dealt with".


My question about the Yale student is related, though. Because in one of my other threads I was told Kanner would refuse to diagnose high functioning cases and only diagnose low functioning ones. But obviously the Yale student was high functioning, yet Kanner diagnosed him.



livingwithautism
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15 May 2018, 7:37 am

Remember Kanner was a cardiologist originally in Austria.