A “Citadel” on Confederate Avenue

Under Dr. Elizabeth Mumper, A new citadel for autism—the Rimland Center for Integrative Medicine—is opening on Confederate Avenue in Lynchburg, Virginia. The new center is named after Dr. Bernard Rimland, who wrote the 1964 bookInfantile Autism: The Syndrome and Its Implication for a Neural Theory of Behavior, which argued that autism was a biological condition; Dr. Rimland promoted biomedical treatments for autistic children through the “DAN!” conferences. Dr. Mumper, a pediatrician, became “intrigued” with Dr. Rimland’s views and with those of Dr. Andrew Wakefield and, as the The News and Advance notes:

The address is curiously appropriate, because Mumper started out in the world of autism research as a rebel. When she first began poking and prodding at the conventional wisdom, it was generally conceded that the condition was a mental health issue, most likely caused by a lack of maternal affection (the term “refrigerator mothers” was coined to describe this sort of neglect). It was considered rare (two in 10,000), and those diagnosed with it were generally believed destined to live with autism for the rest of their lives.

Regarding the new Center as a “citadel”: that seems to be the same metaphor as that used in this title: The Empty Fortress: Infantile Autism and the Birth of the Self.