Heroism: REFRIGERATOR MOTHERS and Autism

It is America of the 1950s and 1960s, when a woman's most important contribution to society is generally considered to be her ability to raise happy, well-adjusted children. But for the mother whose child is diagnosed with autism, her life's purpose will soon become a twisted nightmare. Looking for help and support, she encounters instead a medical establishment that pins the blame for her child's bizarre behaviors on her supposedly frigid and detached mothering. Along with a heartbreaking label for her child, she receives a devastating label of her own. She is a "refrigerator mother".
Refrigerator Mothers paints an intimate portrait of an entire generation of mothers, already laden with the challenge of raising profoundly disordered children, who lived for years under the dehumanizing shadow of professionally promoted "mother blame."
Once isolated and unheard, these mothers have emerged with strong, resilient voices to share the details of their personal journeys. Through their poignant stories, Refrigerator Mothers puts a human face on what can happen when authority goes unquestioned and humanity is removed from the search for scientific answers.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Autism
• siblings
• refrigerator
• mothers
• kartemquin
• PBS
• documentary

[beautifulmind546]

To see the existence of real refrigerator mothers search videos on Jani Schofield. Jani DOES in fact have a history of abuse and neglect from both her parents but in regards to her mother Susan, the coldness is most eveident. When Jani was 2 months old and shaken by her violent father, Susan did nothing. Jani's first admission to the psych ward was right after her brother Bodhi was born and her mother was bipolar and post pardum depressive.

[BeatleBangs1964]

@BM

Singing that old tune again, eh, BM? You've been saying the same thing over and over and accusing the Schofields of abusing their child which we know isn't true. Yes, there are abusive people in the world. No, the Schofields and Peter's mother are not among them.

[BeatleBangs1964]

Three people who are highly revered in the autism world:

Dr. Bernard Rimland

Dr. Tony Attwood

Dr. Travis Thompson

Let's all raise our glasses to them!

[BeatleBangs1964]

What a loving tribute from a son. How wonderful for this family to share their videos and their coping with autism.

Autism is not caused by how one is raised. It is a neurobiological condition that affects sensory processing; language and sensory responses. There are as many variations as there are individuals who have it. I wish the term "refrigerator mother" had never been coined. Kanner finally retracted that BS.

[beautifulmind546]

Refrigerator mothers do exist, they just aren't the cause of autism. They do cause a whole host of supposed childhood mental illnesses these days like ADHD and any other diagnosis that children are being perscribed psychiatric meds for as young as 2 years old. People need to realize that there ARE cold abusive mothers who DO in fact cause their children psychological damage.

[TalogaGirl]

Threetails, with all due respect, you may be confusing cause and effect. I am the mother of an autistic adult (now 41 years old). Mothers have overwhelming stresses and problems that they must try to "control," including children who may be aggressive, embarassing, seemingly hopeless. They may become depressed and feel that professionals and other's blame them and don't understand. So they may not react with much affect if they know the response is going to be blam or criticism.

[misspinkpunkykat]

What's the name of this song?

[Threetails]

I'm curious as to what actually disproved this hypothesis. Any literature on actual clinical data that dismissed Autism as a developmental disorder sustained in early childhood is almost nonexistent.

Several of the people I know with ASDs seem to have highly dysfunctional, controlling mothers with unstable egos and a very flat affect but that is strictly anecdote; I don't have the resources to explore that in depth.