ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a hopeful note of clarity into a situation which is one that has been overshadowed with confusion and doubts—about definitions, diagnosis, methods of treatment, and potentialities for change. In exploring and comparing a number of approaches and in tracing the history of Mrs Tustin's own discoveries and insights, this study contributes a new breadth and illumination into the nature of the condition. Taking a wider perspective than both M. Rutter and B. Rimland, George Victor has also distinguished childhood autism from childhood schizophrenia. The mistaken idea that all autistic children have been unloved as infants has led to an over-emphasis on environmental causes, as well as to over-indulgent forms of psychotherapy that were unsuitable for remedying the autistic condition. The underlying diagnostic feature that is specific to autism stems from the fact that all human beings, like other animals, have an inbuilt disposition to seek shelter from frightening experiences.
