March 5, 2012
Diagnoses of mental disorders will ever be disheartening, but that of autism still leaves a lingering question mark in the minds of doctors and parents. Emerson College’s Communication week put on a documentary last Wednesday, the 4th entitled, “Refrigerator Mothers,” a film retelling the stories of mothers with autistic children from the 50’s and 60’s.
During this time period, many leading scientists concluded the cause of autism being lack of maternal bond. Mothers were blamed for children’s disorder, placing a great deal of responsibility and grief on their shoulders. Holocaust survivor and scientist, Bruno Bettelheim, in 1964, claimed the experience of autism similar to that of being 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."
Dr. Daniel Kempler, Chair of the Communication Sciences and Disorders at Emerson, said at the event, “what I find so interesting about this movie is that it makes me question what I know to be true. It’s humbling in that way.”
The theory of maternal bond having a causal relationship with autism has long been replaced by genetic reasoning for the disease. The mothers of this documentary are relieved now in knowing they are not to blame for the cause of autism. It stands to reason that we have many more truths to question.
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