Refrigerator mothers
By: directed, co-produced and edited by David E. Simpson ; producer, J.J. Hanley ; produced by Kartemquin Films, in association with the Independent Television Service (ITVS)
Contributors: Quinn, Gordon; Independent Television Service; Kartemquin Films; Fanlight Productions
Publisher: Kartemquin Films; Fanlight Productions [distributor]
Published: 2006
Place of publication: Chicago; Boston
Language: eng
Format: [videorecording] /
Number of pages: 54
ISBN-13: 9781572958289
Subjects: Autism; Biography; Autism in children; Autistic people; Family relationships; Treatment; History
Description: From the 1950s through the early 1970s, the American medical establishment thought it had found the cause of autism: poor mothering. Doctors presumed that the bizarre behaviors of autistic children--rigid rituals, difficulty with speech, extreme self-isolation--stemmed from their mothers' emotional frigidity. Medicine now knows that autism is a brain disorder, not the result of poor parenting. But for a whole generation of women branded as cold "refrigerator mothers, " the damage had already been done.
Notes: Originally produced in 2002.

Funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Illinois Humanities Council.

Special features: Interview with the filmmakers; additional scenes; soundtrack; web links.

Executive producer, co-producer, Gordon Quinn; music, Hannah Marcus; camera, Tsuyoshi Kimoto, Gordon Quinn.

DVD.

Closed-captioned.