This translation of an article, published by our opponents, provides very good background information about Autism Rights Watchs

recent activities in France and the reaction of the psychoanalysts. Source: Autisme: la psychanalyse franaise dnonce comme drive sectaire la Miviludes par une ONG, JLML, November 14, 2012, http://www2.jlml.fr/index.asp?doc_id=454&cat_id=9&subcat_id=29

Autism: French psychoanalysis reported to the Miviludes (Interministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combating Cults), by an NGO as "cult-like".
14/11/2012

After publication of its position on November 11 2012, against french psychoananytical movements, comparing them to cult organizations", the association Autism Rights Watch has published an open letter to the Milviludes, denouncing the sect-like hold that psychoanalysis exercises over the medical elite, the public radio service and the French government." People with autism and their families are the subject of a violent war between the different therapeutic approaches which are supposed to help them. In this conflict, psychoanalysis and particularly Freudian psychoanalysis are under unprecedented attack. The most recent comes from a new association, registered in the USA, but very active in France, Autism Rights Watch, whose founding members are themselves autistic. ARW are demanding an immediate stop to packing" , a practice whereby autistic people are wrapped in freezing, damp sheets, which the association calls "torture". As part of its campaign, it organized a public demonstration during the ANCRA (National Association of Autism Resource Centers) conference, held at the end of September at Caen University. Research on "packing" authorized Together with "Vaincre l'Autisme" and the "Support the Wall" collective, ARW is also campaigning to protest against the fact that although the General Directorate for Health (DGS) says it opposes this practice, it has nevertheless authorized a research program on the subject. In particular, it targets Professor Pierre Delion, who promotes packing in France. "Professionnals are using the argument of a supposed ban on the practice to better defend research and training on packing. They have understood the interest in using research and the current scientific debate as an argument to let them continue packing." At the start of November, ARW struck again, this time publishing an "official position", comparing the French psychoanalytical movements to "cults". Psychoanalysis: "a cult-like hold over the elites" Pierre Delion, director of research into packing. In the organization of a day dedicated to Psychoanalysis and Freud on France Inter radio on Friday, November 9, 2012, the association sees "yet

David Heurtevent, Vice-President of ARW.

another example of the cult-like hold psychoanalysis has over the medical elite and the French government." (...) Psychoanalysis is a pseudo-science which has not been scientifically proved as a treatment method. (...) We have seen that at no time were questions clearly asked concerning its real effectiveness, or even about alternative therapies. There has also been a notable absence of open debate on the subject. The organization of this event confirms the hold that psychoanalysis has over the French public radio service. For the NGO, "psychoanalysis clearly demonstrates the obvious signs of a cult influence in France." Extending the idea of "publicly condoning a crime" This is why the association published an open letter to Milviludes at the beginning of November. In it, they suggest extending the idea of "apologie de crime", publicly defending or condoning a crime, a concept created by the Press law of 1881 to include "ideas and acts adversely affecting the rights of disabled people." ((Convention of May 3, 2008). This proposition is clearly aimed at packing, but more widely at psychoanalysis in general as an unproven and cult-like practice. Other measures are also called for, including the development of "suitable reglementation" for the professions of psychoanalyst, psychotherapist, sophrologist, trainer, coach, professionall and/or personal development advisor as well as for "strict rules governing physical, psychiatric and psychological "treatments" psychomotricity, early learning, personal and/or professional development ."

Prof. Delion's position Pierre Delion, who led the research program financed by the health ministry on "the therapeutic effectiveness of packing" who was called before the French Order of Physicians and who also received the support of Martine Aubry (at the time the General Secretary of the Socialist Party), calls ARW an "extremist association". Setting out his arguments, he explains: "On the one side: - a treatment used by dozens of French child psychiatry teams, in particular to treat self-harming by certain autistic children, with the agreement of the parents of the children concerned, - research carried out within the framework of a clinical hospital research program, validated by qualified experts and financed by the Ministry of Health looking at the effectiveness of packing in serious behavioral disorders in children with PDD/ASD. - a favorable opinion from the National Health Authority indicating the absence of risk in this procedure and - a favorable opinion from the Research Ethics Committee on the ethical aspects of the technique, - referenced articles (still few in number) on the effectiveness of packing. On the other hand: A calumnious and defamatory national and international campaign, orchestrated by associations of parents of autistic children based on fantasy (to date, there has been no official complaint from any parent) and attacking more than just packing, to include psychoanalysis and institutional psychotherapy. This culminated in the publication in the Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of a letter entitled "Against the packing", denouncing this technique but with no scientific argument to back it up, signed by several well-known scientists; this disinformation was then taken up by politicians out to destroy child psychiatry and widely reported in biased media coverage.