Aspies For Freedom

Yet another imfamous Austism 'treatment centre' that proudly makes use of adversives: "electro-shock, ammonia, spanking (with a spatular!), restraint etc etc"

Go see the page for yourself (if you can stomach it):

http://www.effectivetreatment.org/writeup2.html

They use the adversaries against high fuctioning as well as low functioning autistics (at least one can't critise them of 'discrimination' on that count), and take a purely behaviourist view of human psychology:

There are no such things as "mental processes" or "minds", only behaviour  exists within an organism. From a behaviourist perspective thoughts and feelings are generally classes as forms of behaviour (for consistancy).

Behaviour is conditioned from stimuli in the surrounding environment. Conditioning take the form of a positive re-enforcer (subject performs a disired behaviour and they get a reward), negative re-enforcer (if subject fails to display desired behaviour, rewards or privalleges are witheld) and finally an adversive or punisher (subject is made to feel physically uncomfortable in order to deter them from performing non-desired behaviour).

In essence this approach is more like a very extreme version of ABA. If a person has no mind, then any dissention or pain they complain about (if they are verbal) can be discounted because behaviourists are not interested in the causes of supposed mental activity, but merely getting a subject to display desired behaviour patterns.

The problem is obvious, if you get a person to *act* in the way that you want them to, then there is no guarantee that internally they really believe or accept what they are showing to the outside world  (but for behaviourists this isn't a problem because there are no internal beliefs that cannot be reduced to patterns of behaviour, or are none of their concern). And everybody thought 'Walden 2' was just one of Skinner's unrealised dreams!

The 2nd link I offer, is one from their services page on how they offer councilling:

http://www.judgerc.org/behcounsel.html

In short, patients have no privacy of information, nor are thoughts or feelings about treatment considered important if they do not specifically relate to behaviour.

If this kind of behaviour is classed as a human rights abuse in any other context, then why is it acceptable here?!


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Just before I sign off BBC Radio 4 have had an 'Autism Month' where the 'You and Yours' program has debated various issues related to autism, relationships and interventions etc...

The final program (which is available as a real stream below), centred on an intervention called 'Son-rise'. This is run by an Autistic who claims to have been cured of his Autism and now is offering hope for every other sufferer out there (and up until now I had only heard of 'token autistics' on the autistics.org web page!). Seriously listen to this guy (and some of the parents!) this really is a case of a brainwashing cult taking place.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/...1014_3.ram

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/...tism.shtml (the Radio 4 webpage with the rest of the series in streaming format)

http://rsaffran.tripod.com/sonrise.html A page writtern by a disatisfied parent of the Son-rise program (well worth a read!!)

so how exactly do you say to someone you're autistic without using the words "i am autistic" or "i am an aspie"?

nm.....

about this behaviourist crap:
i agree that this is a massive violation of human rights and perhaps the time has come to really fight these <censored>. who else is getting sick of reading about torture being described as medical treatment?

AFF was meant to take things offline, i think it's time we do that.

The Son-Rise program is very much a financial business, I've found many critical comments from worried parents who were pressurized with hard selling techniques to join up.
Then when the child doesnt "perform" the parent is blamed as not working hard enough, its not the programs fault, and parents are made to feel guilty. That pressure is then transferred to the child.
I joined the Son-Rise forums to ask a few questions, anything slightly negative is immediately removed and the person banned.
How can parents truly discuss any problems or difficulties when the forum bans anyone who expresses concern. They want to work in an information blackout, and even links arent allowed.

exactly those words: peaceful protest

we find any kind of major promoter of ABA-type treatment and hold a peaceful protest outside their premises

where abouts is this place?
any contact details on the site? (or a WHOIS lookup on the domain name could help)

This should be November's campaign.
We have to try and do something about this.  :evil:

We have a meeting on the first wednesday of every month in the chatroom, we discuss future campaigns and this will be a definite. We will discuss it and decide what to do.

I swear that ABA page slowed down my computer! The content of the page was enough!

:!: Mich :?:

Please see this link with more details to join the protest against this center-

http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com/phpBB2/v...=3150#3150

Somebody must of failed World History.



The Universal f*cking Decleration of Human f*cking Rights states that:

That's to help you show how badly they're breaking the UDHR.

More:

This site is also a great advocate of ABA.

http://rsaffran.tripod.com/aba.html

Sending mails and phoning directly may be able to achieve something, I do think its worth trying, some people literally do not realise that there are adult autistics who can express opinions against such treatments.

The other things you described would be excellent too! Shame you couldnt be at the meeting. Does anyone live in this area? As me and Gareth are in the UK its much more difficult to liase with local newspapers etc, anyone in the US willing to try?

They're not all that new.  I think they were formed around 1999.

Just wanted to add this link for anyone wanting to know more about the JRC.
Its a related topic.

http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com/phpBB2/v...=5355#5355

If you look on the first page of this thread it gives links to their site, and their full address and phone number are there, also if you look at the threads for november's AFF meeting, and others, we have a campaign against the center.
They have not responded to any e-mails from us.
But we will continue regardless, any more ideas on action to highlight the JRC and its practices are welcome.