Hey all, (question starts second paragraph)
This is my first post on the forum. I am 27 years old, considered 'high functioning', diagnosed at 2.5 with infantile autism (not Asperger's specifically though that is generally what people label me as). right now I am at an inexplicable threshold point of my life where I am evaluating what brought me to where I stand today. I received ABA therapy from roughly that point until I was between 5 and 7 (details are murky). My therapist was a wonderful person, but I vaguely remember therapy being 35-40 hours a week; as far as the other details I don't remember but I am trying to understand it, as I feel like in a way, it created a 'third' false personality to interface with the world as mask (as if the ego in Freudian terms was split into an autism 'true' ego, and a mask portion), that is at odds with my true capabilities, that don't get to truly come to light in any capacity. I started skimming cliff notes of the history of ABA, how its inventor also experimented with LGBTQ conversion therapy, and how he believed autistics weren't whole people.
Because of this I wanted to ask you all two questions:
1. Why is the structure of ABA inherently destructive (or, perhaps not) for those in different places on the spectrum?
2. For those of you who have undergone aba, do you feel it has lead to this '3rd personality', (or, as I also word it 'multi-partitioned' brain); if so, can you draw specific correlations (either anecdotal related to specific therapy practices, or scientific rooted in how such practices correlate with adverse psychological adaptations).
Very interested in hearing everyone's thoughts.
Yesterday, 5:19 pm
