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Comment by AlexandrB | Hacker News Reader

> On the contrary, Kanner held tightly to his original proposal that autism was an innate condition, which was widely understood to mean it had a genetic basis. His behavioral observations of parents contributed to a breakthrough concept that is wholly consistent with genes being a key part of the autism story. Instead of parenting causing autism, Kanner’s idea — which has since been validated — was that autism (and its genetic roots) underlies some of the behavior in a subset of parents.

[1] https://www.spectrumnews.org/opinion/viewpoint/correcting-th...

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quote: He wrote that, overall, the parents seemed perfectionistic and preoccupied with abstractions, rather than showing a genuine interest in people.

I find this sentence interesting in comparison to the phrase "dumb people talk about people, average people talk about things, smart people talk about ideas" that I've seen in various forms on the internet.

Hot take: People are over-optimizing for grand impact, while neglecting the more profound impact on the local level. Most people will not be senators, but I think many people, with some work, can run for office as an alderman, mayor, or county representative.

Fascinating how classic research from the 40s has been turned on its head completely.

Would be interesting to see parent's response.

I can think of some rather obvious reasons why Kanner would reframe his position publicly. It's just way too taboo.

Kanner said that his believed autism had a genetic basis. I think it's a cop-out, as I don't think it makes any sense to blame genetics for the sudden appearance and dramatic rise of autism (and other childhood disorders) over the timespan of a few decades, even if genetics may certainly play a role in our susceptibility to these disorders.

In any case, this is merely my suspicion. I'm not a researcher on this subject.

The reason why I wrote that comment is because the stakes are high and the evidence is suggestive enough that this merits more of a discussion.

Every parent has to decide how much attention their child gets. How many parents would do things differently if they knew the impact it could have? Reading the research definitely opened my eyes and changed my opinion on how to raise our child.

From the article and his papers it seems he never changed his opinion, but that he was being misrepresented 180 degrees, and that you, in good faith, believed that was his position.

I also don't see evidence he claimed it is only genetic reasons.

What he hypothesised (supported by current scientific understanding according to [1]) was that both autism and parenting behaviours have a common cause (genetics) making it a prime example for correlation does not imply causation.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism

I won't quibble. The larger point is that there are potentially devastating consequences if a child fails to attach to a loving and attentive adult, and that this is not adequately discussed or appreciated in our society.

This is a huge tail risk that every parent should understand. If you are a parent or ever become one, you have the information to look into it and come to your own conclusions.

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