Refrigerator mother

The term refrigerator mother was coined in the 1940's, as a label for mothers of autistic children. These mothers were often blamed for their children's behaviors, including rigid rituals, speech difficulty, and self-isolation. The refrigerator mother label was based on the faulty assumption autistic behaviors stem from the emotional frigidity of the children's mothers. As a result, mothers of autistic children suffered from blame, guilt, and self-doubt from the 1950's through the 1970's and beyond, when it was widely assumed autism resulted from inadequate parenting.

Origins of refrigerator mother theory

Psychologist Bruno Bettelheim and other mental health professionals championed the notion autism was the product of mothers who were cold, distant, and rejecting, thus deprived of the chance to bond properly. The theory was embraced by the medical establishment and went largely unchallenged into the mid-1960's, but its effects have resonated into the 21st century. As early as 1943, Leo Kanner called attention to what appeared to him as a lack of parental warmth and attachment among the mothers of autistic children. In a 1949 paper, he suggested autism may be related to a "genuine lack of maternal warmth." In a 1960 Time magazine interview, Kanner bluntly described such mothers as "just happening to defrost enough to produce a child." Although Kanner was instrumental in framing the refrigerator mother theory, it was Bruno Bettelheim, a University of Chicago professor and child development specialist, who facilitated its widespread acceptance in the 1950s and 1960s. Many articles and books published in that era blamed autism on a maternal lack of affection, but by 1964, Bernard Rimland, a psychologist with an autistic son, published a book that signaled the emergence of a rational counter to the growing misconceptions about the causes of autism. His book, Infantile Autism: The Syndrome and its Implications for a Neural Theory of Behavior, attacked the "Refrigerator Mother" hypothesis directly. Soon afterwards, Bettelheim wrote The Empty Fortress: Infantile Autism and the Birth of the Self, in which he compared autism to being a prisoner in a concentration camp, "The difference between the plight of prisoners in a concentration camp and the conditions which lead to autism and schizophrenia in children is, of course, that the child has never had a previous chance to develop much of a personality." In 1969, Kanner addressed the refrigerator mother issue at the first annual meeting of what is now the Autism Society of America, stating "From the very first publication until the last, I spoke of this condition in no uncertain terms as innate. But because I described some of the characteristics of the parents as persons, I was misquoted often as having said that it is all the parents fault'."

New explanations: filling a theoretical void

There are many contenders to replace the refrigerator mother theory. After the refrigerator mother theory gradually lost credibility within the medical community, autism research has focused primarily on establishing a genetic cause for autism. One controversial theory is bringing renewed life to Kanner's initial observations about the parents of autistic children. It derives from the observation that people with superior technical ability but poor social skills are meeting and mixing genes in high-tech centers, and having offspring susceptible to a disorder whose traits mirror our computerized culture. Researchers have noted parents in fields such as engineering and computer science, with their particular talents and quirks, seem to run a greater risk of having children with autism or its high-intellect variant, Asperger's Syndrome. Now, this link is becoming a matter of public debate, resonating through the high tech corridors of of Silicon Valley, Ottawa and the on- and off-line networks of Cambridge, Dublin and Boston's Route 128. Some call it geek syndrome. Medical authorities, while continuing to focus on possible genetic vulnerabilities to autism since abandoning the long held notion of refrigerator mothers, generally attribute the staggering increase of autism diagnoses to changes in diagnostic criteria and a growing awareness of the disorder. Bernard Rimland was among the first healthcare professionals to settle on the notion vaccines have been the principle cause of autism, rather than refrigerator mothers, stirring controversy.

Aftermath: escalating controversy

A growing number of parents, and a limited number of healthcare experts, reject the notion that autism is strictly an innate genetic disorder, noting there is no such thing as a genetic epidemic. Instead, parents seeking alternative explanations often link vaccines to the onset of autism, among a variety of other possible environmental causes. Not satisfied with explanations offered by medical authorities, a number of parent led advocacy groups have sprung up seeking better explanations for the causes of autism. Some are loosely allied with the medical establishment, including the National Alliance for Autism Research and the M.I.N.D. Institute. Some advocacy groups, including Safe Minds, and the Autism Research Institute (founded by Rimland), have stirred controversy by openly questioning the conclusions of medical authorities, calling for more extensive research examining possible environmental triggers, particularly vaccines and mercury exposure. In response to demands for research into possible environmental causes from parents and these controversial advocacy groups, it has been suggested vaccine theories simply promote and prey upon feelings of guilt among parents, much as the discredited refrigerator mother theory fostered guilt among mothers decades ago.http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CAB30.htm Most observers, meanwhile, are mystified by the conflicting explanations for the explosion in autism diagnoses.

Persistence of a stereotype

A definition of autism reflecting the outmoded refrigerator mother theory appears in a prestigious reference work, the 2001 edition of Rizzoli-Larousse Encyclopedia: :"Autism is the the fundamental nature of the schizoid constitution which can merge into clear schizophrenia ... The autistic child, if he receives the appropriate treatment and this is followed up by his relatives (who are often the cause of the syndrome, especially when they overstep the mark and insist on an over-perfectionistic upbringing) can be more or less completely cured. Nevertheless, even when the problem is resolved, he will still have difficulties in forging normal connections and calm inter-personal relationships."

See also

Category:autism Category:psychiatry Category:psychology de:Kühlschrankmutter

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