{"id":27762,"date":"2025-09-29T16:17:37","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T15:17:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/?p=27762"},"modified":"2025-10-03T12:50:51","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T11:50:51","slug":"from-refrigerator-mothers-to-paracetamol-why-harmful-autism-myths-are-so-common","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/arts-social-sciences\/psychology\/from-refrigerator-mothers-to-paracetamol-why-harmful-autism-myths-are-so-common\/","title":{"rendered":"From \u2018refrigerator mothers\u2019 to paracetamol: why harmful autism myths are so common"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>US president Donald Trump\u2019s claim that pregnant women should avoid paracetamol \u2013 a statement that is both harmful and not backed by the science \u2013 fits into a long and damaging tradition of blaming parents, especially mothers, for autism, <em>says Lindsay O&#8217;Dell, Professor of Critical Developmental Psychology, The Open University.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Despite decades of research and a far richer understanding of autistic lives, two myths persist: that parents\u2019 behaviour can somehow cause\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/topics\/autism-533\">autism<\/a>, and that autism is a temporary condition that can be \u201ccured\u201d or simply \u201coutgrown.\u201d Large, long-term studies \u2013 and the experiences of autistic people \u2013 have repeatedly debunked both claims, yet they continue to surface in public debate.<\/p>\n<p>From the earliest theories of autism, researchers looked for someone or something to blame. In the 1950s and 1960s, psychiatrists such as\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/29667863\/\">Leo Kanner<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 an Austrian-American physician who first described autism as a distinct condition in 1943 \u2013 and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/journals\/modern-intellectual-history\/article\/abs\/enduring-fortress-the-influence-of-bruno-bettelheim-in-the-politics-of-autism-in-france\/E2B2D6CF25DAAD93CAD11883CB52C5B9\">Bruno Bettelheim<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 a Viennese-born American psychologist known for his controversial theories on child development \u2013 promoted the now-discredited notion of the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/listen\/programs\/allinthemind\/autism-refrigerator-mothers\/14101710\">refrigerator mother<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>This is the idea that autism was the result of emotionally cold parenting. This theory led to guilt, shame and even the forced separation of children from their families, causing immense harm.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/from-refrigerator-mothers-to-paracetamol-why-harmful-autism-myths-are-so-common-266075\">Read the full article on The Conversation<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Picture credit: Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US president Donald Trump\u2019s claim that pregnant women should avoid paracetamol \u2013 a statement that is both harmful and not backed by the science \u2013 fits into a long and damaging tradition of blaming parents, especially mothers, for autism, says Lindsay O&#8217;Dell, Professor of Critical Developmental Psychology, The Open University. Despite decades of research and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":27763,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[860,1525,1643],"class_list":["post-27762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology","tag-faculty-of-fass","tag-news-home","tag-ou-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27762"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27765,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27762\/revisions\/27765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}