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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 October 2022
The divergence concerning the treatment of autism in France developed out of the different narratives within autism literature. Psychoanalytic texts defined the treatment of autism beginning in the 1950s, with the participation of parents in the treatment of their children a central aspect of the narrative. These examples identified the parents as culprits in the appearance of autism, which was an accepted convention. However, by the late 1960s, new examples of autism literature reformulated assumptions, putting parents at odds with the medical establishment. The parent-centred examples inaugurated a new era of conflict between families and the French medical establishment, manifest in a changed approach of advocacy from associations. In each of these examples, the role of parents in their children's disability came into question, with analysts emphasising their participation in its origins and parents suggesting their role in mitigating the impact of disability for their children. This article examines the development of autism literature to show a shift in the role of families, from one of collaboration with medical professionals, to one of resistance against them.
1 The literature on parent blaming in the United States is quite extensive but provides a sense of the pervasiveness of the phenomenon, given the influence of a number of American psychologists and therapists. See Silverman, Chloe, Understanding Autism: Parents, Doctors, and the History of a Disorder (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012)Google Scholar; Feinstein, Adam, A History of Autism: Conversations with the Pioneers (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), 54–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mark Osteen, ed., Autism and Representation (New York: Routledge, 2008), and Dolnick, Edward, Madness on the Couch: Blaming the Victim in the Heyday of Psychoanalysis (New York: Simon and Shuster, 1998), 204–17Google Scholar, among others. For parent blaming in the French context, see Hochmann, Jacques, Histoire de l'autisme (Paris: Odile Jacob, 2012), chapter 16Google Scholar; and Briggs, Jonathyne, ‘The Enduring Fortress: The Influence of Bruno Bettelheim in the Politics of Autism in France’, Modern Intellectual History, 17, 4 (2020), 116391CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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28 Jordann Jack, Autism and Gender: Refrigerator Mothers to Computer Geeks (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2014), 34–5.
29 Ibid., 33–5. However, the phrase ‘refrigerator mother’ encompasses a wide range of behaviours that were potentially disabling to children, from over-protective mothers to distant mothers. The spectrum of maternal love was pathologised in many ways as an explanation for autism. See Hannah Zeavan, ‘Hot and Cool Mothers’, Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, 52, 5 (2021), 60–2.
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31 Ibid., 23.
32 Ibid., 306–7.
33 Ibid., 312 and 319.
34 Richard Bates, Psychoanalysis and the Family in Twentieth-Century France: Françoise Dolto and her Legacy (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2022), 123–4.
35 Ibid., 9.
36 Françoise Dolto, Dominique: Analysis of an Adolescent, trans. Ivan Kats (London: Souvenir Press, 1973), 6.
37 Ibid., 71–3.
38 Camille Robcis, Disalienation: Politics, Philosophy, and Radical Psychiatry in Postwar France (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2021), Chapter 1.
39 Jonathyne Briggs, ‘Reinventing Play: Autistic Children and the Normativity of Play in Postwar France’, Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques, 45, 2 (2019), 58–60.
40 ‘20 ans d'action’, Nos Enfants inadaptés, 29, 1 (1969), 22–3.
41 Brigitte Chamak and Béatrice Bonniau, ‘Autism and Social Movements in France: Exploring Cross-Cultural Differences’, in Michael Orsini and Joyce Davidson, eds., Worlds of Autism (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2013), 239–57.
42 Allison C. Carey, Pamela Block, and Richard K. Scotch, Allies and Obstacles: Disability Activism and Parents of Children with Disabilities (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2020).
43 ‘Renforçons notre action!’, Nos Enfants inadaptés, 21, 1 (1967), 1–2.
44 ‘Nous ne pouvons plus attendre!’, Nos Enfants inadaptés, 24, 4 (1967), 1.
45 Jonathyne Briggs, ‘Les Enfants perdus: Asylum Reform, Parents’ Groups, and Disability Rights in France in the 1970s’, French Politics, Culture, and Society, 39, 2 (2021), 26–45.
46 ‘Renforçons notre action!’, 1–2.
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49 Clara Clarborne Park, The Siege: The First Eight Years of an Autistic Child (New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World, 1967), published in French as Histoire d'Elly, le siège (Paris: Calmann-Levy, 1972).
50 Fisher, ‘No Search, No Subject?’, 17–22.
51 Alfred and Françoise Brauner, L'expression psychotique chez l'enfant: Expression verbale, expression non-verbale (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1978), 35.
52 Briggs, ‘The Enduring Fortress’, 1165–6.
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61 Fredet, Mais, 27.
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74 Le packing is a psycho-physical therapy that involves tightly binding patients in towels soaked in cold water, followed by binding in warm blankets over several hours in a single session. The theory behind the approach is that the physical response of children will permit a better integration of the body and dismantle psychological defence mechanisms against anxieties developed from parental interaction. In 2010, the association Autism Europe petitioned against the use of this technique. See ‘Against Le Packing: A Consensus Statement’ at https://www.autismeurope.org/blog/2010/11/29/against-le-packing-a-consensus-statement/
75 Williams was translated into French in 1992 and Grandin was translated into French in 1997.
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