When I saw this title of an article in New Scientist this month, I was curious just what was the association between autism and guilt. The article starts out as follows:
“Those familiar with the scientific method may be puzzled why many parents of autistic children seek interventions and therapies with no evidence base.” The author Hilary Stace continues, “For decades, parents have been told that they are the cause of their child’s autism. The idea promoted by psychologist Bruno Bettelheim in the 1960’s and 70s that autistic behaviors are triggered by a mother’s emotional frigidity is still widely believed. More recently, autism has been attributed to parental genes. Thus a diagnosis of autism can trigger feelings of parental guilt.”
She then goes on to say that parents are countering the notion that their child’s autism is their fault by doing whatever they can to alleviate the effects. This could not be any further away from the truth. What motivate parents to bring their autistic child in for treatment is they want them to get better. And the reason they chose alternative therapies is because “scientific medicine” has little if nothing to offer.
Tomorrow, I will give an example of just one patient’s dramatic improvement with homeopathic treatment.
Terry Pfau, DO, HMD