Honey I Think We Need the Shrink for our Kid!
It’s a new year—–but some old ideas about autism seem to be appearing.
An article about infant mental health in New Zealand presents the case for using psychotherapy on infants; autism is mentioned as one of those problems to be on the lookout for. Mental health experts shift focus from couch to the cradle calls on parents to consider the mental health of very young children and, especially, the “relationship between the baby and the primary caregiver – usually the mother, but sometimes also the father and even the nanny” (my emphasis).
Child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr Denise Guy says early intervention can make a difference between an emotionally well-developed child and a problem one.
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Children in their infancy to ages three to five are observed by psychiatrists to catch serious problems, such as autism or anxiety disorders. Doctors find they can recognise the signs of some of these problems at that very early age.
“Negative experiences during infancy can alter brain chemistry,” the article notes: And the “negative experiences” suggested seem to be those from the baby’s caregivers. It is not simply the children who need to receive early intervention psychotherapy: Dr. Guy is also quoted as saying “‘A baby comes in a relationship and that’s the key part of infant mental health. It’s about healthy social animational development and that happens within a relationship.’” Whoever, that is, is involved in a “relationship” with a baby at risk for emotional problems—a caregiver, such as a parent or nanny—also needs to be treated as infants are not “treated in isolation.”
The implication from all this is that caregivers—and, more specifically, parents who engage in “bad parenting”—-are the cause for their child’s, their infant’s, mental health problems. Dr. Guy is also quoted as saying that we need to “promote secure attachment relationships between our infants and their parents.”
Blaming parents—blaming mothers, who do still tend to be the primary caregiver for a young child—-is an idea autism parents are familiar with. We all know about Bruno Bettelheim, according to whom “autism is caused not just by bad parenting but by parents who wish their child did not exist.” When one hears about “psychotherapy for infants” because their parents have not developed the right “relationships” with them—because their parents have not developed “secure attachment relationships” with them—-one has to wonder if parents are not again getting blamed for causing mental health or other “serious problems”—like autism—in their children.
And that is one old idea I would prefer not to have to contend with in 2007.
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POSTED IN: Diagnosis, Family, Health, History, Medicine, Neuroscience, Parenting, Psychiatry, Psychology, Treatment
2 opinions for Honey I Think We Need the Shrink for our Kid!
ebohlman
Jan 1, 2007 at 5:22 pm
This is just a rehash of the “window of opportunity” nonsense. It’s true that _extreme deprivation_ early in life can cause lots of problems, but we’re talking about “Romanian orphanage” levels of deprivation. Somehow, a bunch of therapists and pundits have managed to wildly extrapolate from that and conclude that anything short of Perfectly Optimal Parenting can cause all sorts of ills.
Daisy
Jan 1, 2007 at 11:04 pm
I’ve worked with children who suffered — really suffered — from poor parenting. Autism is an entirely different diagnosis, and an entirely different world. (teacher, former day-care provider, Mom to child with Asperger’s, if anyone questions my knowledge base)
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