The Pinocchio Podcast

For my readers' amusement, I've put together a short list of famous lies in recent history:

-- Bill Clinton, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman," 1998.

-- Richard Nixon's denial of any knowledge about the Watergate break-in, 1972.

-- Barry Bonds' claim that he never used steroids, 2003.

-- Tony Attwood, in Donna Williams' recent podcast, only slightly exaggerated for parody purposes: "I have never used the term CADD, and anyone who says otherwise is a militant extremist and jealous of my success, and it was just too hard for me to find Ari Ne'eman's very prominently posted contact information."

Gee Tony, do you think your nose will still fit through the conference center doors?

A Brief History of Cassandra

As Tony Attwood begins his US speaking tour at a conference in Hartford, Connecticut, where he is scheduled to appear tomorrow, autistic rights advocates from ASAN New England are making it clear that the bogus concept of "Cassandra Affective Deprivation Disorder" is discrimination based entirely on neurology and that the autistic community cannot stand for that.

Because some people are still wondering what the controversy is about, I'm providing a brief explanation of the history and nature of this purported disorder, directly from a primary source: The Asperger Couple's Workbook (Maxine Aston, Tony Attwood; Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2009).

Chapter 9 of the book (viewable in part through Google Books) explains that the term "Cassandra" comes from a Greek myth and refers to a prophet who was cursed with never being believed. You can find more information here about the Cassandra story and the actual characteristics that were attributed to Cassandra and Apollo in classical mythology. I've quoted a short excerpt (which is fair use under US copyright law) from the book below:


"This feeling of not being believed is typical of how many NTs feel when living with a person with undiagnosed Asperger Syndrome.

Over the years the terminology for the effect of Cassandra has changed. Before Cassandra it was referred to as the mirror syndrome by the Families of Adults Affected by Asperger Syndrome (FAAAS) and then referred to as the Cassandra phenomenon (Rodman 2003). Terminology has since progressed from Cassandra affective disorder and now more appropriately Cassandra affective. The Cassandra phenomenon was first made public at the Families of Adults Affected by Asperger Syndrome (FAAAS) conference in 2003 as Cassandra affective disorder (CAD) (Aston 2003b) and finally Cassandra affective deprivation disorder (CADD) (Aston 2007).

…CADD is the result of emotional deprivation due to the fact that one partner, affected by Asperger syndrome, is unable to provide the emotional support the NT partner needs to stay healthy within the relationship."


It bears repeating that no legitimate research has ever been conducted to support "Cassandra Affective Deprivation Disorder." Maxine Aston simply made it up. Although it's likely that she never would have gotten into print and would have been widely dismissed as a crank if she had made such claims on her own, her association with Tony Attwood over the years has enabled her to feed off his professional reputation and thereby gain an appearance of credibility.

And sadly, judging by Attwood's continued unwillingness to repudiate the crankery and bigotry of Aston and FAAAS, it seems he's a willing participant in their schemes.

Tony Attwood FAAAS Poetry Slam

There has been a lot of discussion on Wrong Planet and other sites about ASAN's petition calling on Tony Attwood to stop associating with FAAAS and Maxine Aston, to which Attwood replied by attempting to defend those associations via a form letter on the FAAAS website and other places. ASAN reposted and critiqued the letter, and by now this online war of words has been going on for two months. Attwood still hasn't seen fit to simply pick up the phone and call Ari Ne'eman, which gives the rather unfortunate impression that he can't bring himself to speak with a self-advocate as an equal.

As several people have pointed out, the petition was never intended as a personal attack on Tony Attwood, but as a constructive criticism. To be clear, my posting on the subject isn't motivated by any grudge either; in fact, I have to give him credit for his high level of energy, chutzpah, and crowd-pleasing skills. He is a masterful promoter. Because he has been so successful in positioning himself as a trusted figure in our community, however, I feel very strongly that Attwood has an ethical responsibility not to abuse that trust by associating with those who would harm our community.

The content of his website clearly reveals that such associations are still ongoing. As of today, a Google search showed 39 results for FAAAS on Tony Attwood's website. On one of his pages, Attwood touts an anthology of horrid poetry and essays called "The Book of FAAAS," which includes an article comparing autistics to prickly cacti and their non-autistic partners to wilting affection-starved roses. I'm not going to quote from it, out of consideration for readers who might not have a barf bag handy.

But it got me thinking, why should FAAAS have a monopoly on bad writing and ridiculous analogies? As I see it, we should create our own collection of sorta kinda poetic stuff making clear what we think of the situation. Feel free to post 'em in the comments, dear readers. Literary talent is definitely not required. Here's my contribution to get things started:

SKUNK CABBAGE

In yonder swamp skunk cabbage grows,
With shiny leaves of gleaming green.
The stench makes plain it's not a rose,
No matter how much it may preen.
Its foul reek assails the nose,
And many voices call for change.
Will Attwood listen? No one knows.
His lack of action's mighty strange.

Tony Attwood and Isabelle Hénault, the World Is Watching

Clinical psychologists Tony Attwood and Isabelle Hénault have been very successful in book sales, speaking tours, and other presentations regarding autism. Unfortunately, they also are very closely associated with both Maxine Aston, inventor of the bogus Cassandra disorder, and the infamous Massachusetts hate group FAAAS, which has repeatedly claimed that autistics are violent by nature and abuse their family members. Both Attwood and Hénault are members of FAAAS' professional advisory board and presented at FAAAS conferences for several years beginning in 2000.


Conference photo, a.k.a. Tony Attwood's Hall of Shame

(l-r: Karen Rodman of FAAAS, Hénault, Attwood, Aston)


In March, both Attwood and Hénault gave presentations at a conference in Sydney, Australia, sponsored by a group called ASPIA, which claims to be a support group for people involved in relationships with autistics. Sound familiar? Yup, it's another hate group peddling the same old garbage. I posted a blog entry last month illustrating the hypocrisy, bigotry, and total lack of ethics in such groups and how they destroy relationships. Nonetheless, Attwood and Hénault have continued to appear at these events, no doubt because their association with the Cassandra cult has been very lucrative over the years. The Cassandra groups have provided them with buyers for their books, conference fee money, and increased name recognition. In return, the presence of credentialed psychologists at these events has given the Cassandra cultists an appearance of legitimacy, which has helped them to suck in new converts. Seems like a win-win situation—except for bothersome little details like integrity, decency, and the human rights of autistics and people with disabilities.

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network has posted an online petition calling on Tony Attwood and Isabelle Hénault to renounce their Aston/FAAAS/ASPIA connections and to make a public apology to the autistic community, as well as to the cross-disability community regarding FAAAS' insinuations that all people with neurological disabilities are likely to be abusive. This is not the first time members of our community have raised the issue with Attwood and Hénault. Several concerned people have tried to discuss it with them in private. However, their usual mode of response has been to make nice soothing sounds, wait for the pesky autistics to go away, and then go right back to consorting with Aston and FAAAS. Not surprising, given Tony Attwood's history of minstrel show attitudes toward autistics. Now that it is all out in the open, we'll see if they respond in a more meaningful way.

I have stated before on this blog that minority communities, such as the autistic community, have both the right and the responsibility to police themselves and to ensure that those who seek to exploit their people under the guise of providing services are not allowed to do so. As we have seen with other civil rights movements, minority groups who struggle against intolerance can exert significant economic power by refusing to patronize vendors who knowingly spread intolerance. When professionals claim to have expertise in meeting the needs of the community's members, but are in fact spreading harmful stereotypes for financial gain, the community would be well within its rights to say to them: You're fired. Whether that happens with Attwood and Hénault will depend on their willingness, now that their unsavory associations have become widely known, to change their ways and make a genuine apology for the harm caused by their associations.