High-functioning Autism: Psychopathy? Narcissism?
Channel: Prof. Sam Vaknin
Date: 2021-03-29

People with high-functioning autism lack empathy and engage in criminal behaviors. Are they psychopaths? Narcissists?

Autism is not caused by vaccines, that much we know. But is it caused by bad parenting?

Refrigerator Mothers

The concept of “refrigerator mothers” has been long debunked. Autism is a brain disorder and possibly hereditary. It is not linked to bad parenting. But a dead, narcissistic mother can cause her autistic child to defend himself by developing narcissism.
 
ADHD has been intimately linked to the precursors in children of adult narcissism and psychopathy: conduct disorder and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD).

A bad, dead, cold, mother fosters in the autistic child narcissistic defenses and in her other children attention deficits, hyperactivity, and antisocial behavior. These dysfunctions make it difficult for the child to translate his/her reflexive empathy into mentalizing a theory of mind. Early childhood abuse and trauma, therefore, inhibit the development of a mature form of empathy, with cognitive and emotional components.

There are three problems with raising awareness and educating people about Autism Spectrum Disorders:

1. We don't know the aetiology of autism (what causes it) and whether the brain abnormalities often observed in autistic patients cause it, are caused by it, or are merely correlated (effectuated by a third, common factor);

2. Autism is a family of disorders which have little in common with each other. Some autistic persons are high-functioning and accomplished, others self-harm, are hypersensitive to stimuli, and noncommumicative; and

3. The long-discredited, "refrigerator mother" theory blamed emotionally unavailable, "dead", or "frigid" mothers for the pathogenesis of autism in their children. This deterred parents from seeking help.

The ignorance, taboos, stigma, biases, prejudices, and lack of evidence-based theories and practices that pervade mental health apply even more so to autism.

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