Novelist Ann Bauer has published a piece that I think I really can call a must-read. It's both quite personal and historically informative. Takeaways:
1. Bruno Bettelheim, who I was a bit familiar with but not all the details, should have stuck with literary criticism. His attempts to heal children's souls almost certainly did more harm than good, especially to their families.
2. There are and have been more theories on what causes autism than there are stars in the sky. A shocking number have been used to punish parents and bring their families under outside control.
3. The manipulation, bullying, and gaslighting that Bauer experienced as the mother of an autistic child did seem to prepare her for life in the COVID era. Would I wish these experiences on anyone? Hell no. But she knows how to recognize patterns.
2 comments:
You're right about that one being a must-read article; it was a real eye opener for both of us. I don't know how it is I never heard of Bettleheim since his theories appear to have been pretty far reaching for a fairly long time. That he was essentially a charlatan makes the success of his enterprise all the more shocking, especially in consideration of the fact that other professionals built on his theories. They caused a lot of suffering.
Ann Bauer's story is a heartwrenching description of her own suffering as well as that of her family, Andrew most of all. Her ability to see and describe so clearly the similarity of how they were treated when he was alive and the current situation regarding Covid was astonishing.
The appearance of expertise often outweighs the quality of actually knowing what you're talking about. I guess that's been true for quite a while, maybe always, which would explain a lot about our current world. It is shocking that this damage was done to children and families without much of anyone raising a stink, but again, there's a pattern.
It's a very clear and saddening picture, particularly in the way that friends and family turned on her for... well, what exactly? Finding out how malleable human nature is doesn't really comfort you when you realize who's most likely to manipulate it.
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