In the course of working on my new book about listening to parents and children, I have had the pleasure of immersingmyself in the writing of D.W.Winnicott,pediatrician turned psychoanalyst. Winnicott'sprofessional life included both caring for countless young children and families as a pediatrician, and psychoanalytic practice, where his adult patients "regressed to dependence," giving him an opportunity to interact with their infantile qualities, but with adult capacities for communication. This combination of experiences gave him a unique vantage point from which to make his many brilliant observations about children and the nature of the parent-child relationship. A recent New York Times Magazine article on autism prompted me to share his words of wisdom on the subject, which, though written in 1966, still have relevance today. The following is from a collection of papers, Thinking About Children: From my point of view the invention of the term autism was a mixed blessing...I would like to say that once this term has been invented and applied, the stage was set for something which is slightly false, i.e. the discovery of a diseasePediatricians and physically minded doctors as a whole like to think in terms of diseases which gives a tidy look to the textbooksThe unfortunate thing is that in matters psychological things are not like that.
Winnicottimplores the reader to instead understand the child in relational and developmental context.He writes:
In my behavioral pediatrics practice, parents of a young child may wish for a diagnosis to relieve them of the feeling that they are "bad parents;" that their child's challenging behavior is their "fault." Yet when I give parents space and time to make sense of theirchild'sbehavior, and in doing so help him learn to manage his unique vulnerabilities- essentially doing what Winnicott suggests-Ifindthat most parents prefer not to have their child diagnosed with a disorder.
Many adults with autism now advocate for the idea that autism is not a disorder. But they come from a very different perspective, arguing that their unique way of interacting with the world is simply different, not abnormal. Certainly for an adult this is a valid perspective.However, when I work with parents and young children where the diagnosis is being entertained, the whole family is struggling terribly. It feels to me a great disservice to a young child to think of calling this situation "normal."
See the original post:
Rethinking the Meaning and Use of the Word "Autism"