A constant theme in 2008 was the rebranding of autism, as Orac at Respectful Insolence referred to how the likes of David Kirby have been constantly saying that “autism isn’t autism”—-it’s “mercury poisoning,” “vaccine-aggravated mitochondrial disorder,” “mercury-induced neurological disorder,” etc., etc.

(April being Autism Awareness Month—-does your child know about this—let’s not get into what such “rebranding” would do to the month…….)

The notorious Judge Rotenburg Center in Canton, Massachusetts uses electroshock “treatment” on some its residents, some of whom are autistic. In April, one of its staff was charged with rape, assault, and battery of another staff member—-more about the very, very questionable practices at the JRC is noted here.

Dr. Andrew Wakefield can be said to be the figure who set in motion the claims of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. He is currently being charged with alleged violations of medical ethics by the General Medical Council in the UK. At a hearing in April, Dr. Wakefield noted that he is “‘perfectly willing to accept [his] understanding was wrong.’”—- Also on the legal front: 2008 saw a version of “vaccine litigation subpoenagate,” with Neurodiversity blogger Kathleen Seidel successfully quashing a subpoena issued to her by vaccine litigation lawyer Clifford Shoemaker, and Dr. Marie McCormick also issued a subpoena.

More about the presidential candidates’ views on autism became apparent, especially those of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and, yes, on vaccines—-and as to why vaccines, and topics like the so-called “autism epidemic,” continue to be discussed, seems to be a sign of at least a little paranoia and politicking……….

Patternicity.

It’s a term that refers to “the tendency to find meaningful patterns in meaningless noise,” as noted by Michael Shermer in the November Scientific American:

Traditionally, scientists have treated patternicity as an error in cognition. A type I error, or a false positive, is believing something is real when it is not (finding a nonexistent pattern). A type II error, or a false negative, is not believing something is real when it is (not recognizing a real pattern—call it “apatternicity”).

However, as Shermer notes, we don’t have a “Baloney Detection Network in the brain to distinguish between true and false patterns”—-patternicity does seem to be at work when it comes to theories of autism causation. There’s no doubt that some believe that a vaccine really caused their child to be come autistic (a “type I error, or a false positive”), and, too, there seem to be many who don’t believe that there really is evidence refuting a vaccine-autism link (and who do not recognize a real pattern—who are exhibiting “appatternicity”). Shermer cites a paper in the the October Proceedings of the Royal Society B “The Evolution of Superstitious and Superstition-like Behaviour,” by Harvard University biologist Kevin R. Foster and University of Helsinki biologist Hanna Kokko. They draw on evolutionary biology to demonstrate that

whenever the cost of believing a false pattern is real is less than the cost of not believing a real pattern, natural selection will favor patternicity.

Belief in the false pattern of “vaccines cause autism” persists because the “cost” of believing this is more readily grasped, you might say, requires less of certain efforts, than the alternative. There’s a deep-set tendency in us to find, to have meaning, in whatever the world presents to us; to be superstitious (if not a bit paranoid); to see causal associations just because something happens after something else; to assign cause to effect incorrectly.

Lest this seem merely to be yet another “vaccines don’t cause autism” post, I’m tacking on an account of our Thanksgiving and, yes, patternicity.

Patternicity seems another way to explain Charlie’s need to create order, in placing his shoes with the socks inside them perfectly lined up together; in packing his lunch box with a Capri Sun, 4 small plastic containers, and bags of carrots and grapes when he gets home from school; in arranging his CDs on the floor of his room just so. When Charlie was younger, if we so much as moved one shoe or colored block, his agitation was broadcast far, wide, and loudly. These days he’s easy-going if anything gets moved and sometimes leaves it askew, sometimes restores his order.

Charlie having some extra days off from school, I’ve figured that his need for order—for ways to mark and structure the days—increases. He spent a lot of Thursday (aside from loafing on the couch and going on an hour-long bike ride with Jim on a cold afternoon) in his room, trying to stick all the CDs into his old paper pumpkin trick-or-treat bag. There are way too many CDs to fit into the bag and Charlie did not let this deter him from trying to cram them all in with the result that that bag kept splitting and, in the midst of pumpkin pie baking and general Thanksgiving food preparations, I heard the cry of “I need help!” a couple of times.

The pumpkin bag was literally bursting at its seams when I went into Charlie’s room. With three kinds of tape—Scotch, masking, and duct—I tried to patch together the ripped side and the jagged places where CD corners had poked through the candy corn design. Charlie watched me intently and occasionally offered very long pieces of Scotch tape that he’d cut with scissors. At one point, I tried to tape a piece of a brown paper shopping bag onto the pumpkin bag, to make it bigger so all the CDs would actually fit.

“No, no,” was Charlie’s immediate response at my attempt to graft a piece of one bag onto another. Well, of course: What does a piece of brown paper bag have to do with an increasingly dilapidated paper pumpkin trick or treat bag? To tape one onto the other would be to disrupt the order of things—to upset the pattern—-and the cost was too high.

After I’d taped the bag together, I returned to Thanksgiving dinner preparations (now why is it that Americans feel a need to eat a specific menu of turkey, potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie?) and Charlie returned to his CD-ordering-and-reordering. When we called Charlie to eat the turkey, we heard “help, fix”: When I went into his room, I beheld the pumpkin bag, so recently, carefully, taped back to wholeness, packed full of CDs with one side ripped open and flapping around.

Apparently there’s a new order to understand here.

A cold wind and steady rain would seem to belie it, but “summer” starts for me today—–following Commencement at my college, the spring semester is over and the fall one does not start until late August (in fact, the first session of summer school courses starts today). Now it’s time to resume being “more of a mom” and clean up the various stacks of books and papers on my desk, dust and vacuum rather more frequently, sort through the clothes Charlie has grown out of instead of waiting for my mom to do this when she next visits…

Time to be a mother and housewife, because those kinds of motherly, housewife-sort of activities are all that mothers and housewives do, no?

Well, not exactly. Mothers and housewives can be pretty accomplished—-one whom I know (via the internet) is Kathleen Seidel, who writes the Neurodiversity weblog. The subject matter of her articles is often vaccine litigation and “alternative” autism treatments; her posts are carefully, meticulously researched and cogently reasoned, and are a sort of primer about the legal and scientific background to issues frequently debated in regard to autism.

Seidel was profiled in the April 27th Concord Monitor after she had quashed a subpoena delivered to her by vaccine litigation lawyer Clifford Shoemaker. In her most recent post, Welcome to My Conspiracy, Seidel lists a number of documents that were filed the evening of Wednesday, May 14, in the United States Court for the District of New Hampshire (Case 1:08-MC-13): (1)Response of Clifford J. Shoemaker to Order to Show Cause (.pdf); (2) Memorandum in Response to Order to Show Cause (.pdf); (3) Declaration of Clifford J. Shoemaker (.pdf); (4) Declaration of Lisa Sykes (.pdf); (5) Declaration of Mark Geier (.pdf). Document (6) is an Order that

“Ms. Seidel need not respond to the ‘Response of Clifford J. Shoemaker… to the Order to Show Cause…’ However, she may respond if she chooses to do so on or before May 27, 2008. James R. Muirhead, United States Magistrate Judge.”

Seidel notes that “virtually every speculation, assumption and conclusion about my beliefs, motivations, sponsorship and capabilities expressed in these statements is inaccurate.”

If you want the details, best to read Seidel’s post. The one small point I wish to focus on here is the claim that Seidel is

“a person utilizing investigative ability well in excess of that available to the mother and housewife she claims to be.”

This phrase “mother and housewife” is repeated throughout the documents, with the suggestion that anyone claiming to be a “mother and housewife” could not possibly produce such well-researched and carefully prepared articles (and must have Secret Financial Backers—-drug companies—-that she is not coming clean with in a serious “conflict of interest”). (Not that others in autism research don’t have a few conflicts of interest of their own.)

A few examples in reference to Seidel:

“Ms. Seidel claims to be a mere mother of an autistic child and housewife who is dedicated to the cause of not treating Autism as she believes it is not a result of a neurological defect or injury, but is a natural condition that should not be treated but left alone. She claims to be using only her own funds and a few meager donations to produce her web site. That posture is difficult to credit.” [my emphasis]

“If indeed Ms. Seidel is just a mother working with limited funds to preach her particular gospel, compliance with the subpoena would prove that and it would be easy to comply with.” [my emphasis]

I believe that Ms. Seidel’s sources of information extend well beyond those of a mother and housewife, supported by a few donations, as she claims on her web site, Neurodiversity.com. [my emphasis]

First, what is so wrong about claiming to be the mother of an autistic child and housewife? And, second, who said that mothers of autistic children/housewives are not able to do anything besides the duties of mothers and housewives? Who’s to say that a mother/housewife might not have or find the time to research materials and to write about subjects that she believes to be vitally important not only to her personal circumstances, but also to public health and scientific understanding?

I am glad to describe myself as a mother and housewife, a working mother, that is. I do the usual mother/housework duties, and I also have (find time do to) a full-time job teaching Latin, ancient Greek and Classics at a small, very urban, Jesuit college in Jersey City, New Jersey. And actually, I don’t “just” teach. I co-direct my college’s Honors Program and advise students about graduate school. This summer vacation is already filled with summer school teaching, recruiting and advising incoming students, and writing my book. And, writing this blog. And, walks and swims and adventures with Charlie and Jim; practicing musical instruments; working on skills ranging from writing to making the bed to learning an after-school schedule.

I am about as baffled at the limited notion of what mothers/housewives in the documents of Shoemaker, et al., as I am by the accusations of conspiracy-mongering in the documents. Is this a sign that some sort of paranoia seems to be at work: Aren’t mothers of autistic children supposed to be over-burdened and bleary-eyed enough just from the daily struggles of taking care of a disabled child; to be simply desperate and beleagered?

Well sure we all can feel that way. It ain’t, as they say, easy.

And doing the work (all of it) that I do makes it much, much easier. Now back to work.