Refrigerator mother

• Kanner


  came up with the first set of rules to diagnose people with autism,he described them as having 'an inability to relate themselves in the ordinary way to people and situations'
• Kanner thought at first that the disorder was caused by hidden mental reasons,which blamed mothers.Later on he realised that genetics played a role.

  By then the idea that mothers caused autism had already spread
• Kanner


  studied 11 kids who showed clear signs of ASD.

  He looked at how they acted and also observed the parents,he noticed many of the parents seemed distant and not very affectionate
• Kanner said that the kids with ASD were being raised in what he called 'emotional refridgerators'

  Their parents,especially their mothers were cold and emotionally unconnected
• Kanners ideas were based on Freud.When his ideas came around,the psychodynamic approach was very influential.

  This lead to many researchers searching for emotional reasons for ASD,especially how their early childhood related to others
• Bettleheim and the empty fortress,a book that brought the theory into the real world

  'parents wish that the child should not exist'
• Bettelheim appeared on TV shows and magazines to explain his view that children with ASD were this way because their mothers were distant and unemotional
• Bettelheim made a comparison between children with ASD and prisoners of Nazi concentration camps.

  The emotional neglect experienced by the children was like the deprivation suffered in those camps
• ASD could be a reaction to or a defence against severe emotional neglect by mothers
• A refrigerator mother cares for her childs physical needs but is guilty of reducing this all-important human relationship to something mechanical
• An emotionless and unstimulating mother-child relationship is therefore the primary cause of ASD
• In a childs development,when children face challenges they cant handle,they take a break and parents give them support.The child then feels safe

  But mothers of children with ASD respond with rejection and coldness,making the child withdraw even more.It then happens in a loop until ASD is develops
• Bettelheims solution to the mothers problem was to take the children out of their homes and raise them in a structured place where they can get the support