pat2rome wrote:
MsTriste wrote:
pat2rome wrote:
Here's another nice quote from McCarthy herself in that article that ought to tell anyone all they need to know about her.
"I look at autism like a bus accident, and you don't become cured from a bus accident, but you can recover."
And despite her stupidity, people (aka NT parents) still take her seriously. I don't get that.
I think that article did a very good job of summing up why. The doctors tell them the truth: that there is no one to blame and that there is no cure. They don't want to hear that, so they turn to McCarthy, who tells them exactly what they want to hear.
Yes. That's exactly what happens. Not only does it give the parents somebody to blame, it gives them a feeling of empowerment. I've sat in several doctors' offices while they downloaded their "I'm sorry to have to give you this diagnosis" speech onto me and it's pretty ugly. The bleak portrait of autism that the medical community gives would make Autism Speaks seem charitable. The medical communitie's policy seems to be "we'll give the parents the worst case scenario so they won't have false hope and if we're wrong, then that's ok too because they'll be too busy being happy we were wrong to come back yelling at us".
The medical community says, "I'm sorry Mr. and Mrs. X, it turns out that your child has autism and there is neither treatment nor cure for that. With intensive interventions she may be able to learn to communicate in some way but don't expect anything more profound than requests for cookies. Youyr child is severely ret*d, as are most autistic people". Ok I'm exaggerating a little. But not by all that much. Then Jenny McCarthy comes along and says, "the doctors are all wrong". So who would they listen to? I personally don't listen to
either the medical community or Jenny McCarthy. But I can see why a lot of parents feel uplifted by her.
02 Mar 2010, 11:24 am
