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Being Fooled by Projections
An incident illustrating the deceptive nature of the mind occurred in the early 1990s involving therapists for autistic children. Frequently autism is severely disabling from birth. The child has a markedly abnormal or impaired development in social interactions and communication, and a markedly restricted repertoire of activities and interests. The child is caught in his own inner world and profoundly removed from relationships with people.
A communication technique called “facilitated communication” was developed and taught to a group of intelligent, well-meaning facilitators who were skillful, experienced behavioral scientists and educators. A facilitator would support the hand or arm of the impaired child while using a keyboard or typing device. The facilitator firmly believed that he was only providing support and that the hand or finger movement of the impaired child determined what was typed.
With the aid of the facilitating communicator, autistic children seemed to display extraordinary communication skills. They showed creativity and brilliance, and quickly jumped to the head of their classes. They seemed capable of expounding eloquently on complex subjects, even though they couldn’t even spell simple words prior to the use of this technique. Accomplished professionals, in leading American institutions, heralded the technique as a great breakthrough in the treatment of autism.
Then there was a strange turn of events. Facilitators, independently and without prior communication with one another, reported that a number of children using facilitated communication described terrible experiences of sexual abuse at the hands of their parents. So solid was the evidence supporting facilitated communication that, based upon these reports, children were taken from their parents, and parents were treated as criminals.
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