ARW – Project France 
PDF “The Wall: Psychoanalysis put to the test for autism”, is a French documentary filmed by Sophie Robert.
It describes the misuse of the psychoanalitic approach of autism in France and the discriminations of autistic children in France.
This document provides a summary of the movement and the legal battle for December 2011.
December 2011 has been an extremely dense month for the movement with parents rallying on Dec. 8th in Lille and Paris for the court hearing, a strong campaign for and against the documentary in the media and major supports from Autism Europe and Autism Speaks.
December 2011
Early December: Shaping the movement offline and online
On December 3rd, Sophie Robert made an appearance at the Congress of Autisme France in Paris. She spoke in front of the crowd for a couple minutes crying for help. Danièle Langloys, President of Autisme France, who had travelled to a public screening in Grenoble couple days prior, reinforced the commitment of Autisme France of Nov. 25th. Sophie Robert negotiated a distribution contract with Autisme Diffusion for her DVD in France and received technical support from David Heurtevent.
On December 4th, a Press Release called for simultaneous rallie in Paris and Lille on the 8th, the day of the court hearing.
On December 6th, the twitter account @SoutenonsLeMur is setup as well as the first bilingual Facebook page. The domains http://www.soutenonslemur.org and http://www.supportthewall.org are activated.
On December 8th, the decision is made by some invidivuals and organizations to create a new virtual organization, the Collectif Soutenons Le Mur et Défendons les Droits de la Personne Autiste en France (Support the Wall and Defend the Rights of People with Autism in France).
On December 12th, the website http://www.soutenonslemur.org is launched.
December 8th 2011: Battle in the court room and rallies outside
On December 8th 2011, the emergency hearing opened at 2 PM at the Regional Civil Court of Lille (France) to hear the case between three psychoanalysts (Esthela Solano-Suarez, Alexandre Stevens et Eric Laurent) versus Sophie Robert (Océan Invisible Production) et Autistes Sans Frontières.
Each lawyer made his/her case before the judge. The hearing was described as “tense” by newspapers. The plaintiffs confirmed their request to ban the movie, or, at least, to have their interviews removed and asked for over 200,000 EUR in tort claims. The attorney of Autistes sans Frontières stated that they were not responsible of the movie and only played a broadcaster role for the documentary. The attorney of Sophie Robert refuted any wrongdoing and tried to explain the purpose of the documentary. The judge ruled that she would postpone her decision until Jan. 26th 2012. An official release, containing the talking points, has been released.
Couple hundred parents gathered for the first time outside the court room in Lille and in front of the School of the Freudian Cause in Paris. Some had travelled hundreds of miles across the nation to come demonstrate their commitment to the cause. Béatrice Bolling, one of the spokesperson of the movement, was interviewed live that day on the Belgium Radio RTBF Premiere. A complete post including slogans, pictures and videos is available here. A video is available here.
The legal case is bringing some national and international media coverage and support
Interest started peaking early December in the Regional press and the national newspapers and magazines with the first major court hearing. Papers for or against the documentary were published by leading newspapers such as AFP, Le Monde, Libération, La Croix, Le Nouvel Observateur, Le Canard Enchaîné (translated) et Charlie Hebdo.
Abroad, media coverage spread across the globe, with a substantial interest in Belgium.
- In Belgium, two articles were published by the Standaard on Dec 3rd and Dec. 14th, one article by Libre Belgique on Dec. 7th and an interview of Béatrice Bolling on RTBF on Dec. 8th.
- In the Netherlands, the literature blog Loewak was the first to publish a paper on Dec. 4th.
- In the United States, blogs on the Huffington Post (Dec. 5th), Psychology Today (Dec. 7th) and Age of Autism (Dec. 15th) started spreading the word.
- In Quebec, Canada, Psychomedia relayed once again the information.
- In Switzerland, the Mise En Abyme blog of the French speaking Newspaper Tribune de Genève mentioned the wall and the decision of the French government to make 2012 the year of autism in France.
As a result, the movement received support from major autism organizations: Autism Speaks and Autisme Europe. On Dec. 9th, Autism Speaks published on their blog article a statement supporting the cause and understanding the struggle in France. On Dec. 21st, Autism Europe issued a clear statement in the debate against psychoanalytical practices and reminds that France has already been sentenced by the European Council in 2004.
Strong attacks from psychoanalysts outside of the court room and our counter-attacks
Our opponents have been very active in December. A new group named CIPPA (Coordination Internationale entre Psychothérapeutes Psychanalystes s’occupant de personnes avec Autisme) surfaced and started extremely strong attacks in the media agains Sophie Robert and parents.
On Dec. 3rd, their president Marie-Dominique Amy discreetly attended the Congress of Autism France and tried to convince some parents of the ill-founded nature of the documentary. The same week-end CIPPA issued a document “Alerte aux méconnaissances concernant la psychanalyse et l’autisme” (“Alert about errors on psychoanalysis and autism”) containing the reaction of three psychoanalysts interviewed in the movie (Pr. Danon-Boileau, Pr. Delion, Pr. Golse). In this document and another, Ms. Loisel-Buet, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, interviewed in the movie, seriously attacks Sophie Robert ad hominem.
On Dec. 7th, Caroline Eliacheff, a psychoanalyst editor, attacked Sophie Robert in her chronicle on the Public Radio France Culture. She accused Sophie Robert of “Fraud”.
On Dec. 8th, CIPPA’s president MD Amy, Pr. Golse and G. Haag, sign an article in Rue89 accusing Sophie Robert of having denatured their words. Pr. Golse is interviewed by Catherine Vincent in “Le Monde” the next day. MD Amy confirmed her words in an interview to the radio Vivre FM on Dec. 13th.
On Dec. 17th, our sister organization SoutenonsLeMur is informed that Aldo Naouri, pediatrist and psychoanalysts, has leaked illegally private emails on his website. On Dec. 18th, they respond by sending a “cease or desist” email to the MD and a press release. The organization requests public excuses and launches a boycott. Aldo Naouri immediately withdraws his letter without making public excuses. As a reply, the boycott is lifted immediately. On Dec. 21st, Aldo Naouri requested a “right to response” that was granted.
On Dec. 18th, Sophie Robert officially recognized the Collectif Soutenons Le Mur as her official support group.
On Dec. 21st, Sophie Robert officially responded in a series of official statements to the attacks on her official blog. She again detailed her methods in “A presentation of my film: “The Wall” ”. She replied to each attack eg. “Sophie Robert: An answer to Laurent Danon-Boileau”. She concluded that the documentary genre is in danger in “The documentary genre in danger: an answer to psychoanalysts”. Finally, she asked CIPPA to stop their smear campaign or to sue her.
The same day, the French Prime Minister decided that Autism would be the National Cause of Year 2012 in France (“Grande Cause Nationale”) and offered some free TV and press advertisement on TV to some non-profit organizations organized in the “Collectif Autisme” organization. Surprisingly, none of the French articles about it mention the legal battle around the movie … As a response, the “Collectif Soutenons Le Mur” issued an official statement reacting to this decision and saying that they would monitor real progresses in France.
On Dec. 26th, they launched a season greetings action to increase awareness among professionals and politicians.
by David Heurtevent, MA Georgetown, Asperger
