Campaign Season in NYC and Beyond
December 17, 2007 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
I don’t mean that kind of campaign, though one mother from Iowa has gotten Senator John McCain’s attention for her “autism campaign“; along with Senator Joe Lieberman, Senator McCain is calling for Senate hearings to consider “potential causes of autism.” The “Ransom Notes” public awareness “campaign” continues to generate much talk: Nancy L. Brown, Senior Research Associate at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF) Research Institute, hopes that “Ransom Notes” will come to California (where I’m headed to see my family at the end of the week and where more than a few parents and disability advocates have already gotten to work responding to “Ransom Notes”; now we won’t be traveling as we did BBDO—time to start prepping for a several hour airplane ride).
But how will “Ransom Notes” play if it heads west?
A commenter on a post from the weekend, “Why Does He Do That?”: Why I Prefer Questions to Silence and Denial, noted that the NYU Child Study Center’s “public awareness campaign” has
…a particular, peculiar Manhattan attitude towards people with disorders, or special needs, or any difference. Children who are not superstars have a tough enough time getting into schools, and the hyper-competitive world of child rearing assumes frightening stigma when a child has any difference.
Indeed: New York is a city “full of strivers,” in which parents give donations to prestigious preschools before their children are born to ensure a spot, the better to ensure Junior’s march up the ladder of equally and even more prestigious kindergartens and elementary schools, where Junior and his parents and (it is fervently hoped for) his still-being-planned for sister will be able to rub elbows and color together with just the right crowd and connections: Under such an auspicious beginning, what will keep Junior from making it to the top boarding school (not the “other” ones for those who, at the ripe old age of 12 or 13, do not “cut” it), and thence on to [insert name of super-prestigious Ivy League university here] and [insert name of another super-prestigious Ivy League school here] law school/med school/graduate studies? In this story, being different—being “clinically” different as in you have an actual diagnosis over and beyond being “LD” and needing Mom to bug the guidance counselor so you can take the SAT untimed; as you can’t even think about those schools, there are “issues”—being different is thought to equal a one-way ticket to some school that’s not ranked in the top 20 in US News & World Report. You can be different in your extra-curriculars and your community service but not in…..that.
And if you are—if this is your child—there is a place in NYC that can help and understands, per what you’ve literally heard (read) on the street.
(Though when a child gets to a college, however prestigious, there are still plenty of challenges for students independent and on their own: Four NYU students have jumped to their death.)
Some other reservations about “Ransom Notes”: Beyond Understanding points out that “Ransom Notes” is “Beyond Unfathomable.” Mama says…. deems the ad campaign to be “outrageous insults.” The Mommyhood notes that it’s kind of funny to talk about her child as “kidnapped” because he’s right here beside her……. Joy of Autism also notes that autism isn’t holding us for ransom here. The 6th blog for Outlaw of Psychiatry calls the ad campaign “despicable attacks by USA Shrinks.” Planet3RRY sums it all up to be “good marketing (leaving me tempted to say “good job, NYU Child Stud—-”……sorry, too many years of too much ABA and special ed teaching…..).
And, as Jen points out, if you haven’t signed the petition yet, you know what to do.
I’ve listed previous posts and articles about the “Ransom Notes” ads in this post, and also in this earlier post, which is entitled Rescue Me.
I thought the campaign was an awful idea… I heard about it on fark.com. I likened it in my blog to the idea of someone doing something similar with a teen’s case of very bad acne… Can you imagine the “ransom note” for that? Along the lines of, “I will make your child’s face looks hideous.” How cruel to call attention to medical problems so cold-heartedly!
Yeah, it was really sensitive of them to run that “ransom note” campaign. I guess I’m still wondering what they were thinking…
Nooooo…. California’s fifteen minutes or so from my house. I don’t want to see it there, at all. I’m at the point where most of my immediate family (but only that…) would laugh it off, but I know others wouldn’t be so lucky, and having been directly on the receiving end of being stigmatized so, and it’s not simply bad, it’s dangerous. It’s funny, considering they are trying to combat suicide, and yet faced with the pressures being mounted by those like this campaign it’s more likely that someone would commit suicide because of the stigma being spread so ignorantly.
Cliff
I’d note that I’ve now read both Nancy Brown and Dr. Koplewicz use the term “patient” advocates. One should note that the use of the term “patient” in this context is a way to silence/neutralize criticism from autistic people. Its what happens in institutions where if someone objects to their treatment, their opinions are cast aside as rebellious or not worthy of consideration. It’s the most severe form of dehumanization in “polite-educated” company.
If I see it here, I’m gonna pelt it w/rotten tomatoes.
Anyone else wondering if all the attention directed to protesting the campaign is precisely what was hoped for? Many are offended, but even bad publicity is publicity: Is there a way to protest without simply responding to the concepts expressed in the ads?
Maybe it might be good to stop filling Dr. Koplewicz’s Inbox and instead write to some others (please be courteous, as always):
Kenneth Langone, Board Chairman
New York University Medical Center
ken@invemed.com
Martin Lipton, Board of Trustee Chairman
New York University
mlipton@wlrk.com
John Sexton, President
New York University
john.sexton@nyu.edu
Gee, it’s great that Dr. Brown is looking forward to the campaign hitting the streets of CA. It is too ironic to me since it was the Palo Alto Medical Foundation doctors that dismissed my concerns about my son when he was younger. I guess well educated doctors need billboards to read when diagnosing thier patients.
Also, Kristina….I, too, doubt that NYU will do anything about this campaign. I was going to suggest the we address the govenor, mayor and tourist board of NYC with a boycott of the city. People always listen when they think they are about to lose money.
BS”D
Someone ought to put up signs in New York which read: Corecive Psychiatrists: The REAL Hostage Takers.
The “Ransom Notes” campaign is really about promoting forced drugging of children, including autistic children, with dangerous psychiatric drugs. As Vera Sharav of the Alliance for Human Research Protection has pointed out, Dr. Koplewicz has been a heavy promoter of the drugging of our children and was the co-author of a discredited study promoting the widespread use of Paxil on children.
It is very important that the autistic community and the psychiatric surviviors movement work together on this issue. As an adult Aspie who was given demeaning psychiatric labels nearly 30 years ago, I have one foot in both camps and it has been painful to see the heretofore lack of cooperation on issues of common interest. Hopefully this is about to change. Ari Ne’eman has informed me that he would have written the petition opposing the “Ransom Notes” differently had he realized the psychiatric survivor perspective and the organizations such as MindFreedom which should have been part of this process. Psychiatric survivors similarly need to become more aware of the self-advocacy efforts of autistics. If these two communities can work together for the benefit of both, that will be the biggest silver lining of the “Ransom Notes.”
Hi Mr. Mendelsohn,
Thank you for writing about your experience. I agree with you in so many ways…different communities need to come together, not separate based on ‘functioning’ level…
medications can be wonderful for some, but have wild side effects for so many others, and would’nt it be great if the companies who make the medications could develop medications without side effects? (There are medical reasons why I do believe in some medications not to take away from the suffering you experienced)
A lot of children who make the cut at the right schools – especially the right special ed schools – a racket which is WAY more competitive than the entertaining but too true and indicative NYT article Kristina cited here- are on serious cocktails (and not fun ones with parasols) in order to succeed or stay afloat, e.g., not get kicked out. Yes, now kids get kicked out of preschool or first grade at special ed schools that cost a fortune – because of ‘behavior’. parents who demand $ back are told they should have bought ‘tuition insurance’. Remember the days when getting kicked out of school only happened if you crossed the line into the boy’s dorm? haha.
It is often schools who require parents to put kids on meds “He/She has a spot if he/she is put on (take your pick)”
Many Dr.s are just trying to help and are frustrated by side effects.
Maybe the competitive atmosphere should be scaled back or more quality schools created instead of overmedicating children/teenagers. And teachers should be paid well. Okay, now I sound like I’ve imbibed a parasol wearing cocktail.