Support The Wall – Autism 
PDF This is the support statement received from Pr. Travis Thompson, University of Minnesota, in reaction to the documentary “The Wall or psychoanalysis put to the test for autism” by Sophie Robert depicting the use of psychoanalysis in autism in France.
Licensed Psychologist
Special Education Program
Dept of Educational Psychology
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN 55455
I viewed the six segments of The Wall with a mixture of sadness and outrage. Sadness because France was home to Jean Itard, who first described autism and introduced reinforcement methods and iconic communication (similar to PECs) for teaching Victor over two centuries ago, and of Claude Bernard, the father of modern physiology who emphasized the importance of the scientific method and of eschewing hypothetical causes of human disorders or disabilities.
Bernard was responsible for creating the ABA reversal research design. France was also the home of Louis Pasteur, who discovered most infectious diseases are caused by germs, known as the “germ theory of disease”, is one of the most important in medical history. His work became the foundation for the science of microbiology. France has a remarkable scientific history, which makes this video all the more saddening.
The theoretical notions expressed by the several psychoanalysts interviewed have no empirical foundation and would be amusing or simply embarrassing, if it weren’t for the fact that apparently many people take them seriously in France. They are especially troubling because they perpetuate unsubstantiated damaging ideas about adverse maternal effects on development of autism in children begun by Bruno Bettelheim, which have been entirely discredited.
Their accounts of autism and its treatment amount to folk tales, myths, like shepherds pointing to stars and planets in the night sky, making up appealing metaphorical stories to account for the movements of the constellations, in this instance, the behavior of young children with autism spectrum disorders.
I am outraged to learn that seemingly educated medical professionals and psychologists are preventing children with autism from receiving the most appropriate treatment and educational methods that have been shown repeatedly in controlled research in various countries (Norway, the UK and the US) to be highly effective in
reducing, reversing and preventing further emergence of autism symptoms. It appears the psychoanalysts interviewed for the film are not expected by their professional associations or government agencies to be familiar with the clinical scientific research literature regarding autism treatment. The first of these studies was published in 1987 and the most recent was in 2010.
One of the psychoanalysts interviewed referred to such behavioral intervention as a “whim.” There are over 20 such controlled studies extending over a quarter of a century, which seems more than a whim.
It is increasingly clear that autism is a neurogenetic disorder most often involving failure to develop components of brain connections or synapses. There is persuasive evidence that experience-dependent synaptogenesis can over come some of these problems.
I suggest the psychoanalysts interviewed for this video read: Murrow et. al. (2008) Identifying Autism Loci and Genes by Tracing Recent Shared Ancestry. Science Volume 321,pp. 218 – 223. The authors conclude: “ The connection between experience-dependent neural activity and gene expression in the postnatal period forms the basis of learning and memory, and autism symptoms typically emerge during these later stages of development.
Our finding that deletions of genes regulated by neuronal activity or regions potentially involved in regulation of gene expression in autism suggests that defects in activity-dependent gene expression may be a cause of cognitive deficits in patients with autism. Therefore, disruption of activity-regulated synaptic development may be one mechanism common to at least a subset of seemingly heterogeneous autism-associated mutations.”
The logical implication of their finding is that compensatory experience in the form of intensive early behavioral intervention is capable of overcoming some of the consequences of these gene defects by promoting synaptogenesis, a fact that I pointed out in a paper in 2005 [Thompson, T. (2005) Paul E. Meehl and B. F. Skinner: Autitaxia, Autitypy and Autism. Behavior and Philosophy, 33, 101-131] in which I compared Paul Meehl’s analysis of the etiology of schizophrenia with autism.
I am very sorry to see such views continuing to assert dominance in a developed and scientifically sophisticated country like France.
Pr. Travis Thompson
