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A Psychologist's Thoughts on Clinical Practice, Behavior, and Life

Autism Fact and Fantasy

Sadly, false beliefs about childhood autism have become prominent today with many believing it derives from vaccination or air pollution or whatever. Yet psychologists have long known its origin, and why this knowledge is resisted by the public. Autism symptoms are perhaps the most visually disturbing of all mental health behaviors since it develops during the earliest years of life. But autism is also often misdiagnosed, and the presence of some autistic symptoms in a child often vanishes after brief play psychotherapy.


Autism is caused by a greatly deficient mother-infant interaction beginning in earliest infancy. The biological endowment of most infants enables their healthy development provided they experience an environment that meets their needs. For example, all babies will walk at the same general age even if they had been mostly carried by their mother. The pre-autistic baby, sensing the parenting inadequacies, seeks independence, an effort which must fail because of their age. This causes many such children to seem precocious at three years of age, until their attempt at autonomy collapses and an autistic shell develops as a protective mechanism. For effective treatment the therapist must enter the child's world and slowly wean them out. My intensive inpatient treatment, twice daily therapy for four years, of a teenage autistic child is described in my book, Troubled Children/Troubled Parents: The Way Out, the first chapter of which is posted on my website.


An Australian study found that when the mothers of young pre-autistic children were provided extensive counsseling about parent-child interaction, virtually none of these children were diagnosed as autistic at four. It is undeserved parental guilt which causes these facts to be ignored.

 

All parents believe they are doing the best for their children though none would consider this on any other task without instruction, which is publicly lacking. Thus parental guilt is unwarranted, particularly since the unconscious is very powerful. Sound parenting education could greatly benefit all.

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Supping With The Devil/Youth and Social Media

This post was inspired by a Wall Street Journal article ("Stop Panicking Over Teens and Social Media"/Jan. 31, 2025) - The teenage (and younger) obsession with social media is not new, nor is it different from other compulsive behaviors that have long tormented parents. Though not inherently bad, its misuse can have life altering consequences and not for the better. I have known teen sexting activity to cost parents large legal fees, and grave consequences from this for adults too.
Psychologically, compulsive activity is a normal healthy mental mechanism when occasionally used to reduce anxiety. It is beneficial with scientific, creative, academic, or job activity but unproductive when interfering with these as when compulsively playing a video game instead of doing homework. An obsession is a repetitive thought (for example, the fear of not having locked the door) and a compulsion is the physical act of doing so (checking the door is locked).
Thus when a youth engages with social media obsessively it is because they are overly anxious, and the reason for this is what the parents should investigate, to remedy their child's distress with or without professional aid.
But education is important too since youth, being immature, do not grasp its potential harm or understand that what is posted today will publicly exist forever. Yet momentary impulsivity can cause adults to lose their way too. To think twice before posting is a good rule. And all, whether religious or not, should follow the Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt not remove thy clothing in front of a camera!

 

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