Smoke and Mirrors- The
Making of a Stereotype
By Bronwen van der
wal
Chris Brown (Editor)
Review of High Conflict &
Asperger’s Syndrome by Sheila Jennings Linehan
If you were to read Ms Sheila Jennings
Linehan article, High Conflict and Asperger’s Syndrome,1 without prior
knowledge of the condition in question, you would discover that:
“Individuals with Asperger’s Syndrome
create endless problems unintentionally ”. They are “…incapable of
negotiation.”
This view is at the heart of an article,
which proposes, on the grounds of general observation, to change the
starting position in mediating high conflict divorces:
“Where there is lengthy conflict related to
separation, & where one party has Asperger’s Syndrome, we submit that the
source of post-separation conflict is likely to be found predominately in
the problems generated by the neurological disability. This view is a
radical departure from the literature on high conflict separation which
assumes that both parties are the source of post separation conflict.”
This would appear to be radical indeed,
with potentially severe consequences for the individuals deemed affected,
making this no mere academic debate. Is this conclusion fair, the picture
of Asperger’s syndrome reasonable? The number and force of the responses to
the comments section on the publication website, massively exceeding that
for any other article, make this at least a reasonable question.
Extraordinary claims require
extraordinary evidence.
Linehan’s article is based on 3 sources
apart from her own vignettes, Henderson and Hackett’s Asperger’s Syndrome
and Child Contact Cases,2 Dr Venetia Young’s, Encounters with
Asperger’s Syndome in the Solicitor’s Office3 and Maxine Aston’s ‘Living
with Asperger’s Syndrome,4 which Linehan describes as ‘seminal’.
However, these are not three independent pillars of argument since they
cross-refer: Henderson and Hackett cite Young. Aston cites Henderson and
Hackett and Young, and Linehan cites Aston, Henderson and Hackett and
Young. There is not a great width of sources to support the argument. This
does not itself cause it to fall, but does not build confidence. Since the
sources are anecdotal, and there are no statistics proffered, the following
should be kept in mind.
“"Anecdotal evidence is usually derived
from insufficient sampling, may not be comparable to the facts of the case
at bar, and ignore the base rate of the phenomenon in the general population
(my italics)”5
Returning to Linehan’s ‘seminal article’ by
Aston, it is noted that this article was withdrawn from the FAAAS website in
August 2003. The autistic community objected to the article, as did a
number of non-autistic, acknowledged experts in the field of AS in adults,
who were asked to contact Aston directly.6
This support of Ms Linehan’s article is
thus withdrawn, and itself contentious.
The internal evidence and argument
“It is axiomatic that a problem needs to be
identified before it can be resolved.” Ms Linehan’s article asserts, but
she proceeds as though the problem had been identified, without question.
To repeatedly address relationship difficulties in terms of ‘mental
illness‘, ‘impairment’ and ‘disorder’ is to paint a clear picture. Not to
acknowledge that there are other reputable viewpoints may be to paint a
partial one, or a caricature. At the functional level we are discussing
here, AS are different but not necessarily disordered. This view is
supported by two highly reputable experts in Asperger’s Syndrome, Dr Simon
Baron-Cohen and Dr Tony Attwood.7 Difference, however, does not mean easy
to live with for the typically wired. The presence of AS in a marriage
does add to all the other possibilities for obstacles to wedded bliss. This
could be discussed at length, but here we just note that issues of
communication, and preferred behaviour, are hardly the exclusive property of
the AS community, nor are they of necessity insurmountable, pathological or
deviant.
Similarly in the use of vignettes, a
customary practice in psychology, enough usage of one type of scenario will
appear to establish a pattern without exception, or at least a majority
trend. Ms Linehan chooses her vignettes showing AS people are controlling,
asocial, abusive, have poor parenting skills. But there are other
vignettes, which paint quite a different picture and these are not difficult
to find: Liane Holliday Willey, Janet Norman Bain (Jypsy), Anna Hayward and
Martijn Dekker8 are all autistic, all married and all have children. Their
sites are readily accessible on the internet. They would not thank you to
label them as terrible parents and they are most emphatically not in abusive
relationships. Jypsy, the owner of the most comprehensive autism website,
‘Oops Wrong Planet Syndrome’, is a model for how to raise an autistic child
successfully.
The picture in AS is more complicated than
is being sketched and then insisted upon by Ms Linehan. As described on one
of the source articles, Henderson and Hackett9, people with AS may be
intelligent, articulate and professionally employed: doctors, lawyers,
engineers… Thus a claim that executive dysfunction is inherent to
Asperger’s syndrome is difficult to maintain.
As with sources, and vignettes, so with
websites. To select for reference those with a particular viewpoint and
reject others is to present a partial picture as the whole.
Linehan cites two websites as reliable
reading for mediators wanting to know more about the fascinating world of
AS, the FAAAS and ASPAR websites. With FAAAS, the cautionary note is in
the title, Families Afflicted with Asperger’s Syndrome.
As the title suggests, this is a source with a very particular viewpoint.
The work of Jane Meyerding, Dr Liane Holliday Willey, Jim Sinclair, Jerry
Newport, Dr Lars Perner, Frank Klein, Stephen Shore and a great many others
are conspicuous by their absence."
ASPAR has also a particular interest and
viewpoint, focussing on allowing people to vent about their autistic
parents, but a major difference is that the founder Judy Singer has made
this clear on the front page. It is however when particular purposes become
exclusive, self-selecting and self-reinforcing, that incomplete stories can
appear to be told as the whole truth, and there is an increasing risk that
‘groupthink’ as described by Irving Janus will emerge.
“"Since our group's objectives are good,"
the members feel, "any means we decide to use must be good." This shared
assumption helps the members avoid feelings of shame or guilt about
decisions that may violate their personal code of ethical behavior.
Negative stereotypes of the enemy enhance their sense of moral righteousness
as well as their pride in the lofty mission of the in-group.” 10 Thus, they
fall into the age-old trap of believing that the end justifies the means.
A Reminder:
If this was merely an academic argument by
Ms Linehan, the debate might be just that, but serious social and legal
action is being advocated on the back of this proposal.
If the arguments, comments and viewpoint of
a person with AS can be discounted simply through that identification, there
will be a temptation to employ this as a tactic where high levels of
conflict are present (for whatever reason). Ms Linehan actually cites the
“Cassandra Syndrome”11, which proposes a bias against the partner of the
individual with AS. Put forward as “well documented”, on the internet at
least, those few references available are again rather circular in
cross-supporting.
Truth, where viewpoints at values are at
odds, is a difficult commodity to obtain, but to rule one side out of
consideration does seem draconian. If anything, AS people are, on the
whole, prone to honesty,12 not from moral superiority, but from a genuine
characteristic present in many cases of the condition. But being too honest
can be a social handicap indeed, in a world, which has other values.
In Conclusion
If Ms Linehan has her way, as long as the
other party is wearing the Asperger’s label, it should be taken that “The
neuro-typical partner is bending back-wards to accommodate the other party
already” This confidence is in contrast to the comment of a mediator who
noted:14 “Each of us holds a personal worldview, and as mediators we face a
bewildering dilemma: our human-ness does not allow us to remain neutral, yet
we must find a way to deal with conflict that reflects respect for both the
parties and the process.”
We are not suggesting that it is a trouble
free thing to have AS, nor that those with AS are in any way the innocent
parties by default in high conflict divorces. But to come down so solidly
on one side as Ms Linehan appears to have done, with such a partial
presentation, is something, which needs a voice raised in query, and
probably in protest.
© Alyric 2004; Chris Brown (Editor)
References and End Notes
1. "High Conflict & Asperger's Syndrome"
published at Mediate.com, 2004 Sheila
Jennings Linehan.
2. Asperger’s Syndrome in Child Contact
Cases, by Lynn Henderson and Nicole Hackett - Solicitors Family Law (UK)
February 2002
3. Dr. Venetia Young Asperger’s Syndrome in
the Solicitor’s Office Fam Law 2002.
4. Living With Asperger’s Syndrome by Ruth
Forrester and Maxine Aston in Community Care 2002 (U.K.).
5. http://www.lawandpsychiatry.com/html/02-01%20Challenging%20the%20Admissability%20of%20Mental%20Expert%20Testimony.pdf
Ms Linehan’s own work includes the vignette on Winston, which has several
interesting features. The father has Asperger’s Syndrome but does not admit
to the condition. Does this mean that he does not have a diagnosis? The
child is malodorous and displays a range of anti-social behaviours, all of
which are attributed to a paternal lack of care. Where is the mother in
this harrowing account? The vignette also displays a startling ignorance of
the plight of autistic children in schools. Winston could be the cleanest,
most well-dressed and mannerly of children. He would still be subjected to
what one researcher euphemistically called ‘extreme teasing’.
Neurologically Impaired Parents: Are Their
Children at Risk?; Sheila Jennings Linehan and Jan Schloss.
http://www.familymattersassociates.ca/images/Neurologically.pdf
This is not the first time in her legal
career that Ms Linehan has had problems with an attachment to hearsay as a
substitute for evidence.
http://decisions.fct-cf.gc.ca/fct/1999/t-1284-97.html
6. A writer to the comments section to Ms
Linehan’s article accused, the autistic community of ‘bullying’ and
‘censorship’ in getting Ms Aston’s article removed from the FAAAS website.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The argument was an academic
one. Ms Aston asserted that where there was domestic violence the
participants should be investigated for AS. 15 minutes on Google and a
pocket calculator confirmed that using UK 1995 figures, of the 6.6 million
recorded instances of domestic violence, 6.3 million incidents could not be
attributed to persons with AS even if one assumed that every one of them,
man, woman or child was violent. Ms Linehan appears to be similarly
mathematically challenged. She makes the same allegation, merely
substituting substance abuse and child neglect for domestic violence.
7.
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/7138/lobby/disability.htm;
http://www.tonyattwood.com.au/index.htm
8. Martijn Dekker
http://www.inlv.demon.nl/martijn/
Janet Norman Bains
http://www.isn.net/~jypsy/ffotos.htm
Liane Holliday Willey
http://www.aspie.com/pages/1/index.htm
Anna Hayward
http://www.ratbag.demon.co.uk/anna/
9. Asperger’s Syndrome in Child Contact
Cases, by Lynn Henderson and Nicole Hackett – Solicitors Family Law (UK)
February 2002
10. .
http://www.swans.com/library/art9/xxx099.html
11. If Ms Linehan is essentially correct in
her view of AS, it seems clear that AS/NT relationships should dissolve in a
sea of mutual hostility within six months. This is not at all the case.
Many of these marriages seem to last for years. I think Karen Rodman,
founder of FAAAS invented the ‘Cassandra Syndrome’ to get around this
obvious anomaly. The essential feature of this Syndrome is that no one
outside of the home knows the degree of stress in the relationship. Dr
Jekyll is on view but the reality is Mr Hyde and this assertion is made
about AS where a diminished ability for dissimulation is a feature of the
syndrome. Ms Linehan would like to see it given the same degree of
credibility as Battered Woman Syndrome, a view with which I fully concur.
http://www.menweb.org/throop/books/commentary/walker-sheaffer.html
While Sheaffer’s account is entertaining, the following reference should
suffice for the serious minded.
http://www.expertlaw.com/library/attyarticles/battered_women.html
12 Asperger's Syndrome: A Guide for
Parents & Professionals By Tony Attwood, Lorna Wing
13.
http://www.mediate.com/articles/didomenico.cfm
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