Autism "does not exist" article
Last night he was roundly condemned by the Minister for Health, Dr James Reilly (who has a 25-year-old son with autism), on TV3 news. Minister Reilly's condemnation was covered in the Irish Times, Irish Examiner, Journal.ie and even TopNews in New Zealand (http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ire ... 46420.html http://www.irishexaminer.com/news/reill ... 83814.html http://www.thejournal.ie/insulting-and- ... 4-Feb2012/ http://topnews.net.nz/content/221258-re ... ychologist).
Tony Humphreys was discussed on the Tom Dunne show on Newstalk today. http://www.newstalk.ie/programmes/all/t ... sten-back/
Tony Humphreys did grant a single interview to Claire Byrne on RTE Radio 1 on Saturday, in which he absolutely defended his view that absence of love (unconsciously) causes autism, and that this is Good News because it means that unconditionally loving and non-judgemental therapy (his business) provides a cure. The interview is quoted and rebuffed in a lengthy blog post at http://www.thejournal.ie/insulting-and- ... 4-Feb2012/
His employer, University College Cork, might be forced to take some action when a man claiming to be a clinical practitioner is actively lecturing material that is so contrary to psychological best practice guidelines.
PsycStudent
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Tony Humphreys did grant a single interview to Claire Byrne on RTE Radio 1 on Saturday, in which he absolutely defended his view that absence of love (unconsciously) causes autism, and that this is Good News because it means that unconditionally loving and non-judgemental therapy (his business) provides a cure. The interview is quoted and rebuffed in a lengthy blog post at http://www.thejournal.ie/insulting-and- ... 4-Feb2012/
So he's saying 'I now the cause, now you can pay me and I'll fix it'? This is unreal. . .
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Tony Humphreys ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Humphreys ) is going to be on Ireland AM tomorrow morning, at 8:15am.
There has been a lot of coverage of the original article, but very little opportunity to clarify exactly what he means when he says autism and Asperger syndrome do not exist ("The former 'condition' was an attempt to understand severely emotionally withdrawn children, the latter concept, which is being used in an alarmingly and rapidly increasing way, is an attempt to explain children's more moderate emotional and social difficulties.") and are caused by interaction with adults ("An unconscious collusion can emerge between parents and teachers to have these children psychiatrically assessed so that the spotlight is put on the children and not their adult carers' own emotional and social struggles. Regretfully, the relationship contexts of the childrens' lives are not examined and their mature development is often sacrificed on the fires of the unresolved emotiuonal defences of those adults who are responsible for their care.").
Last edited by StuartN on 24 Feb 2012, 9:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Dr Tony Humphreys was on TV3 Ireland AM this morning and appeared alone (i.e. without any parent or autism advocate, because he refused to appear with any, and without any psychologist, because they are too busy hiding). The discussion also featured on the Midday programme on TV3 because of the sheer volume of calls, tweets, faxes and emails that they have had to deal with from parents - the voice of autistic people is not hugely represented. The best outcome of all is the headline that I think the print papers will take up later, a direct quote:
When you use the word autism you’re suggesting it’s a fact. Autism is a theory. It is not a fact
http://www.thejournal.ie/autism-is-a-theory-tony-humphreys-defends-controversial-examiner-article-364800-Feb2012/
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^
And he's right. It's just a medical theory.
Don't get so offended WPers.
Autism and AS(no more) are still...to this date, only psychiatric diagnoses, that's all.
AS/Autism does not have a known molecular etiology.
Rett syndrome has a known molecular etiology: mutations in the gene MECP2 located on the X chromosome.
William's syndrome has a known molecular etiology: deletion of about 26 genes from the long arm of chromosome 7
It's hard to explain Low-functioning Autism though, it may be really some brain-injury/poisoning of some sort, or some not yet unidentified neurological disorder, and it may be different than AS/HFA.
AS/Autism has no such clear genetic definition (only theories), it is a psychiatric diagnosis only, and many doctors don't view psychiatry as real medicine, the psychiatry field is generally not taken seriously nor respected much by the medical doctors, including neurologists (and no, not only the Scientologists).
Many GPs don't believe in psychiatric diagnoses actually - many medical doctors don't view psychiatry as real medicine and even as real science. Sorry, but this is a fact of the general opinion of medical doctors.
Medical doctors deal with diagnoses of diseases/syndromes that exist in their medical books only, diseases/disorders which had been proved by biologists and scientists - and therefore defined biologically.
AS is only a psychiatric diagnosis studied only by psychiatrists, it doesn't exist in the medical books studied by Med students, it has no biological definition at all. The AS diagnosis is just a list of behaviors like most psychiatric diagnoses.
This general views of medical doctors (and many people) on AS will not change anytime soon.... UNTIL the biological cause of AS is determined (if there's any) and the diagnosis moved to medical books.
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