Autism, Vaccination and Neurodiversity - A Timeline Part 3: Response to Donna Williams

Donna Williams wrote...

"I have NEVER had a diagnosis of Multiple Personality Disorder. An unqualified sociology professor gave this OPINION of me in 1994 based on his memories of me in obligatory 30 minute private 1-1 office appointments as my thesis supervisor to discuss my thesis (10 in all)."

I don't think there is any doubt that you have had multiple personalities. Amanda Baggs who should know, says you do. She says on her blog, "Donna Williams and some others have had personas they used in order to pass".

Your book Nobody Nowhere is listed under Healthy Multiplicity Titles at Astreas Bookstore.

Also, it is quite clear from your publishers that you had at least two different personas while you were growing up - Carol and Willie.

You also say on your website here that you lived your "first twenty-five years as three people- a male (Willie), a female (Carol) and me (Donna)."

And yet you claim you have never had a diagnosis of MPD or DID.

I'm quite willing to change (and have changed) the wording of my post, but it won't alter the fact that by your own words you lived for 25 years as three different people. And to a layperson, and I dare say psychiatric professionals, that means you had Multiple Personality Disorder.


"Ask yourself why a sociology professor would have got MPD like behaviour from someone with a long term background of abuse when obliging them to have 1-1 in their office in order to pass the course. It ain't rocket science... "

Are you accusing Dr Chris Eipper of LaTrobe University of impropriety, Donna? You have on a number of occasions in the past referred to him as "a stalker", but here you are giving the distinct impression that his alleged stalking of you isn't his only crime.

This reminds me very much of Amanda Baggs accusing her once close schoolfriend Daniel Drucker of being a stalker of disabled women. I wonder how these men feel when they see themselves being publicly maligned, and their reputations brought into question online for all the world to see, and yet they are not given the chance to defend themselves against such terrible accusations.

"As for formal diagnosis, I was assessed at age 2 as psychotic in 1965 at a private hospital called St Elmo's in Brunswick, Victoria. This was after admission for appearing deaf, no pain response, bruising when touched (leukemia was queried) and coughing up blood. My parents were reassured I was not deaf and didn't have leukemia but was psychotic."

You say, “assessed at age 2 as psychotic”, not diagnosed with ‘psychosis’. I believe you chose your words carefully, Donna. There is a world of difference between having psychotic behaviour and being diagnosed with psychosis, just as there is a world of difference between having autistic behaviour and actually being “diagnosed with autism”.

I don’t understand how the "bruising when touched" could have been the result of psychotic behaviour. Surely, the bruises were either the result of a medical problem which would have needed thorough investigation and treatment, or they would have been indicative of physical abuse.

Could it have been familial abuse, Donna? I read your first book in 1995, and the horrendous descriptions of your early life at the hands of your abusive and neglectful parents. And I pitied you.

That is why I continue to wonder if your autistic behaviours sprang from your turbulent past. It occurs to me that your life could have been very similar to the lives of the deprived, abused and emotionally disturbed children described by both Dr Bartak and Michael Rutter, whose autistic behaviours disappeared when they were moved to caring and supportive environments, or the children recovered completely with “reasonable foster care”.

So much for medical professionals who would have us believe that autism is a mysterious, genetic, and incurable disorder. And so much for Neurodiversity activists who claim that all autism is genetic, incurable, and life-long.

I guess you already know there are children being diagnosed today with autism who actually have Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD). To give such children an autism diagnosis is grossly unfair to parents who are devoted to their children and have given them all the love and care in the world. Should we return to the days of Bettelheim and his theory of “refrigerator mothers”? Or Virginia Axline? As if a few hours of Play Therapy could turn a child like Dibs into a genius!
Having first read Dibs in the 70s, I was horrified to discover that this work of fiction is still being reprinted - and, of all things, has become a school textbook!

"In late childhood I read on the teacher's student roll next to my name "Donna Williams is a disturbed child". This was in 1974, I was 11. This was my 2nd diagnosis and based on being studied by the Psych and Guidance service to the school."

Why do you count this description in a teacher’s roll book as an official diagnosis, and other descriptions as opinions? Do you doubt its accuracy?

You have also been described and identified as a person with Multiple Personality Disorder. Why then do you totally discount MPD/DID, when to the average layperson who has watched movies like ‘The Three Faces of Eve’, and then reads that you have lived as three people for twenty-five years, "Dissociative Identity Disorder" might very easily spring to their minds. Is there another disorder in the DSM that would be a better ‘fit’?

”I was diagnosed with autism in my 20s in 1991.”

Did Dr Bartak actually diagnose you with autism, after the test he gave you, or did he describe you as autistic? You have often written, “I was diagnosed as autistic”, but “autistic” to me is a description, not a diagnosis.

You might already be aware that Thomas McKean, who knew you very well for some years, accused you of being a fraud in a message he wrote to a support group in 1998, but it occurs to me that he might have been trying to get his own back after you had openly questioned his “autism” diagnosis in a letter to MAAP in 1995. I want to make it clear to others that you did not question that he was autistic, only that he might have been misdiagnosed with autism. You said, “it is true that many autistics are misdiagnosed and, therefore, it is just as potentially true that schizophrenics (and people with other non-autistic disabilities including some with PDD (NOS), are misdiagnosed as autistic.”

That’s a very important quote from you, Donna, because this statement is as true today as it was back in 1995, and I couldn’t agree with you more. There is a huge difference between being autistic and having autism, isn’t there? And today everyone with a deficit in what is considered to be 'normal' socialization, for whatever reason, is being shoved under the "Autistic" umbrella. Speech delayed toddlers for instance - and adult schizophrenics.

I believe that this problem has become far, far worse in the 2000s, because of the number of self-identifying “autistics” who, having clicked the ‘right’ set of answers in the Aspie online quizzes think they are autistic, have autism and get an identity for themselves with Neurodiversity. Once they’ve joined the Club, they start disseminating anti-treatment, anti-cure propaganda.

What appals me most is that these people, and many of them appear to be very young and naive, some of them in their early teens, are identifying with a brand new “culture”. They haven’t even been misdiagnosed by a psychiatrist, they are self-diagnosed, and they look down on low-functioning autistics, and shun them. Donna, does this appal you as much as it appals me?

I am mentioning fraud because it seems to me that everyone who is 'someone' has been accused of fraud at some point – you, Thomas McKean, Jim Sinclair, Amanda Baggs, and others.

" Yes, my IQ was tested as under 70 in my 20s after I had a university degree.."

I don’t understand why you would want to quote your lowest score in a specific test, if that’s what you are doing. Every time you do, I wonder if you are trying to make a point to show people how impaired you really were to somehow prove you had autism and were low-functioning. An IQ of less than 70 is in the retarded range, isn’t it? And there is no way in the world that I’d believe that anyone could ever think of you as retarded, Donna. With all your skills, you are highly accomplished.

"I would like to neatly fit a box of HFA or Asperger's, but fact is I don't. I do function today in the HFA range, but this is not the girl who peed all over her room at age 11, its not the kid who had 10% receptive language at age 9, its not the kid who had bites all over her arms at age 6 from her own teeth, its not the kid who had no sense of pain and was trying to cough up her own lungs at age 2. Fact is, many people with autism WONT make my journey, but I did."

Yes, you did. With biomedical intervention, and diet.

Donna, you give the impression that you were a very low-functioning child with severe autism, and it appears that you attribute your self-abusive behaviours, and your peeing all over your bedroom floor at age 11, to your autism. Don’t you think that living in a dysfunctional home with abusive and neglectful parents, an alcoholic mother who wasn’t there for you, and your grandfather dying when he did, would have had more than a little impact on your development, and emotional state?

Did you pee all over the classroom floor when you were at school all day or did you reserve that behaviour for your bedroom? Are you trying to say that you were incontinent at 11 and couldn’t control your bladder, or what?

And if your exceptionally high pain threshold and the shocking self-injurious behaviours you describe are examples you use as evidence that you had low-functioning autism, why would you have any ties whatsoever to a philosophy that would have everyone celebrating your 'neurodiversity'?

And, looking back to when you were 11, if at the time a non-autistic sibling had shared your bedroom, do you think they would have accepted your 'difference', enjoyed your autistic company and being part of the eccentricity, and willingly invited their friends home to meet their autistic sister? Or do you consider it more likely that they would have been deeply embarrassed by your behaviour, self-isolated, and begged your parents to get you fixed?

At Sat Aug 25, 03:43:00 AM PDT, Donna said...

"And please also don't misquote Dr Bartak. He has over 40 years experience working with people with autism and is one of Australia's leading autism experts. He did not diagnose Wendy Lawson with autism. He diagnosed her with Asperger's.."

Seeing as I did not quote Dr Bartak, Donna, I could not have misquoted him. I did not say that Dr Bartak diagnosed Wendy Lawson with autism, I said, "Wendy Lawson was diagnosed, also, curiously, by Dr Laurie Bartak, with an Autism Spectrum Disorder".

The information came from a number of websites including Jessica Kingsley Publications, her publisher, and yours.

"Temple was not diagnosed with autism in infancy. She was diagnosed as brain damaged at age 2."

As a side note, I corresponded with Temple, circa 1995, and she was most interested in my son's history and the obvious link between his vaccination, his brain damage and his autism. And I will add, that as a frantic parent who'd been told by medical professionals that regressive late-onset autism is just a condition that strikes some children out of the blue, there wasn't a cause, and there was absolutely nothing I could do to help him, and they could give me no assistance whatsoever, I was touched and most grateful that she had shown an interest in my son and taken the time to write to me.

Here is an interview with Temple from 1996. It begins:

"Dr. Temple Grandin is in a unique position to provide parents and professionals insight into autism because she has autism. She was diagnosed at age 2 and has lived a very challenging and adventurous life."

http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=817411

"At six months of age, Temple Grandin began to stiffen in her mother's arms and struggle to get away. At two years she lashed out in violent rages, yet had immense powers of concentration, letting sand fall through her fingers or examining her hands or spinning a coin for hours. At three, Temple was taken to a neurologist and a diagnosis of autism was made."

Although you are correct when you say, "Temple was not diagnosed in infancy", she was diagnosed in very early childhood, at the age of two or three, and not well into adulthood at 26, like yourself, or middle-life, at 46, like Wendy Lawson, which was the point I was making. But as you are going to quibble about the wording, I have changed "infancy" to "very early childhood".

Donna Williams said...

"In adulthood Temple was assessed as having Asperger's."

What do you mean by “assessed as having” Aspergers? By whom?

I have never read that Temple Grandin has been re-diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. I’d certainly like a reference. Do you have one? However, I have ‘heard’ ND activists discussing Temple Grandin and Amanda Baggs on their blogs, and how Temple is more like a person with Aspergers, but from the way she looks and behaves it is quite obvious that Amanda is more the genuine article. After the CNN interview, someone said that they'd told Amanda Baggs years ago that one day she would become the "Great Leader of the Neuroatypicals".

Obviously, Neurodiversity activists thought that Temple looked too high functioning to represent low-functioning autistics, and be a spokesperson for them. However, I strongly suspect that's not the real reason. It has more to do with her attitude towards treatment and therapy. She knows children with autism need intense therapy. From what I have read, her loving, kind and supportive family worked together to give her the intense therapy she needed.

"Kathy Grant was diagnosed in the HFA range in late childhood. Her father is a brain surgeon and she had intensive early intervention from age 2. The sexual abuse you refer to happened to her in late childhood. Kathy has NEVER claimed to have been severely autistic."

In Kathy's own words:

"As a young child, I was raped by a neighbors grandfather. It has left me scarred since."

I have never seen a reference for Kathy Grant's HFA diagnosis in late childhood. That would have been before 1975, wouldn't it? Would there have been a range of autism diagnoses thirty-odd years ago? She might never have claimed to have been severely autistic, but she has claimed for many years before her Asperger's diagnosis in 1994 (or 2001), that she had been "diagnosed with autism".

It reminds me of Jasmine O'Neill who claims to be a mute, Classic Kanner's autistic savant. Did you ever meet her, Donna? I hear that since the publication of her book in 1999 in which she extols the beauty of autism and urges parents to embrace their child’s autism and to celebrate their neurological differences, that she has met the man of her dreams, married him, and regained her voice. Did you know?

"Jim Sinclair didn't speak till age 12. He may have had Selective Mutism but says he hadn't worked out why to speak. Jim had a childhood diagnosis of emotional disturbance and at some point a diagnosis of autism."

And yet in 1990, s/he couldn’t prove to the satisfaction of the SRS that s/he’d ever had a diagnosis of autism?

Jim Sinclair:

“When one of my advocates suggested that some problems that had been attributed to personality and attitude might actually be characteristics of the disability of autism, she replied that she felt I had done research on autism and had decided to imitate it. She suggested that this was a case of fraud.”

“On July 30, 1990, the State Appeals Committee issued a decision affirming the decision of the Hearing Officer.” (Ref: MAAP - Letters)

"None of these people have been treated for severe gut, immune or metabolic disorders though Wendy has recently been diagnosed with Coeliac."

Are any of these advocates believers in the current philosophy of Neurodiversity - that autism is to be celebrated, and children should not receive treatment of any kind such as vitamin supplements, chelation for metal toxicity, or the gf/cf diet and probiotics to heal gut dysbiosis; or therapy such as ABA, AIT, Doman-Delcato patterning, or cranio-sacral therapy?

You must be aware that Neurodiversity activists are accusing parents of child abuse for using such treatments and bad-mouthing them; and persuading and bullying others not to even try to treat their child, because it is, they say, tantamount to killing the "autistic person within". Do you agree with that, Donna? I’m almost certain you don’t.

At Sat Aug 25, 03:52:00 AM PDT, Donna said...

"I met Kathy Lissner and Jim Sinclair in 1992 when involved with the promotion of my second book, Somebody Somewhere."

According to Jim Sinclair you were promoting your first book:

http://web.syr.edu/~jisincla/History_of_ANI.html

"In February 1992 Donna Williams came to the U.S. to promote her first book, Nobody Nowhere. During her trip, she took a few days away from the book tour to visit with Kathy Lissner (now Kathy Grant) and me, two of the autistic people she had been corresponding with through the penpal list. I drove to St. Louis, Missouri, where Kathy lived, and we all stayed together in Kathy's apartment."

According to the reviews "Somebody Somewhere - Breaking Free from the World of Autism" your second book was first published in 1994.

It should not be necessary for me to go to the trouble of proving that I am correct, when the evidence is readily available online. Why say that you were promoting your second book, when you must know that it was your first? I really don't understand that, unless you want readers here to believe whatever you say because you are the author and should know when your book was published - or you're expecting me to jump through hoops for your entertainment. No one can promote a book two years before its publication.

"To confuse the origins of ANI with todays neurodiversity movement is fallacious. The neurodiversity movement came along years after the founding of ANI and was begun by Jim and carried forward by many others, including Wendy Lawson. So this should clarify your innacurate history."

This is very confusing, Donna. ANI was founded in 1992, and Jim Sinclair wrote “Don’t Mourn for Us” in 1993, so are you saying that the Neurodiversity Movement began with Sinclair’s writing of this piece? If you are, it looks like ND began one year after the founding of ANI, and that’s not "years after", is it?

And "Neurodiversity" was not dreamed up by Sinclair, was it? Judy Singer coined that word in 1998/9. She's not very popular amongst the ND crowd, is she? They won't even mention her by name. You know why, don't you?

My point to Nine, was that you, Jim Sinclair, and Kathy Grant did not begin the Neurodiversity Movement. Nine claimed that it had started after Jim Sinclair's essay had been published in 1993. But that essay was not widely circulated among parent autism support groups until 1999, after the rate of autism had increased, and parents found out that thimerosal/mercury in vaccines, a neurotoxicant, had been repeatedly injected into their babies starting with the first day of their birth.

Neurodiversity activists use this essay to prove that autism shouldn't be cured, and yet Jim Sinclair didn't have autism, and parents of children with autism today have no idea that Jim Sinclair is an inter-sexed person whom you say "may have had selective mutism", and that s/he is not against "intervention for behaviours that intrude on other people's boundaries".

What exactly did Sinclair mean by that statement?

A child with autism is forever intruding on other people's boundaries, but adult “autistics” who’ve never had their own children, and self-diagnosed “Aspies” wouldn’t know that, would they?

"My place in the neurodiversity politics has always been as a moderate who strongly supports treatment for gut, immune and metabolic disorders for the subgroup of people with AUTISM who share the same health issues I've dealt with."

Yes, I agree you are a moderate. You have a foot in both camps. And being a moderate, you have not budged even when you've come under fire from ND activists for your support of biomedical treatment and special diets, and I thank you for that.

BUT, your recent interview with Amanda Baggs and your You Tube video are supportive of the Neurodiversity Movement’s philosophy. And that is giving everyone with an autistic child a false impression.

It was also a huge disappointment to read your interview with Amanda Baggs, when you should be fully-aware of her history.

By your reputation, Donna, as an advocate for people with autism, and as one of the best known autistic authors for the past fifteen years, you are giving this person who pretends to have been a low-functioning, non-verbal child with autism, CREDIBILITY, especially since your interview appeared after accusations of fraud had started to circulate.

Amongst other falsehoods that you have helped to perpetuate by engaging in this interview, Amanda Baggs was not a non-verbal child with severe autism who learned to communicate at age 9, by slowly teaching herself to type on a keyboard with a little picture of a cat on it. At that age, she was a fully-verbal, fully-toilet-trained, gifted child attending a normal school. And five years later, she was living away from home, attending Simon’s Rock College where she was majoring in psychology. That’s when she started smoking marijuana and using LSD “extensively”, and after several months, crazy and suicidal, she ended up in the psychiatric ward of a hospital, and diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.

Having read that, Donna, do you truly believe that Amanda Baggs was a non-verbal, doubly-incontinent, low-functioning child with severe autism who was institutionalised? Which is the impression she gives in the visually shocking but entirely false Getting the Truth Out website, and on her blog.
She says on her profile at AFF, that the only official diagnosis on paper that she’s ever had is “Autistic Disorder – low-functioning”. She does not say that at the time she was given the diagnosis, she was 19 or 20 years old.

One can only guess why a person who not only supports but recommends treatment, and uses it herself, would have anything to do with the Neurodiversity Movement and their insane philosophy.

Why Donna?