Parents autistic behavior

A 6-year-old boy visits his physician because his parents have noticed autistic behavior and speech problems. The mother s family does have a history of mental retardation. Therefore, the physician suggested a genetic screen of the fragile X mental retardation 1 (FMRl) gene for fragile X syndrome. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) revealed borderline fragile X syndrome. 

The Bettelheim interlude in American psychiatry illustrates how dogma in science can be dangerous, in this case producing a public condemnation of the parents of autistic children, parents who suffered enormous guilt following the accusations that they were to blame for the autistic behavior manifested in their children. The best that can be said about Bettelheim is that his dogma was essentially the dogma of his contemporary psychoanalytic psychiatrists—so maybe they should all be blamed for the misery they caused. 

All autistic children fail to show the usual relatedness normal children demonstrate to parents and other people. They show deficient attachment behavior and early failure of person-specific bonding. They do not seem to recognize or differentiate the most important people in their lives, such as parents, siblings, and teachers. In infancy, they do not show signs of separation anxiety when facing strangers. All these deficiencies in the attachment behavior of autistic individuals may be related to... 

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