David Heurtevent is a 32 year-old autistic self-advocate from France, and is a spokesperson for “Support the Wall – Autism : Help Stop Abuse of Autistics in France Now” (in French, Soutenons le Mur)
January 17, 2012: Wrong Planet published an article by David: Autism in France: Psychoanalysis, Packing, and Other Travesties: Why it Matters
Selected quotes:
Unlike most modern countries, the Autism Spectrum in France is viewed as a disease that can and should be cured. The dark-ages culture of neglect and abuse remains extremely strong.
The documentary The Wall or Psychoanalysis Put to the Test for Autism reveals how outdated theories haunt Autism there.
January 19, 2012 in the New York Times: A French Film Takes Issue With the Psychoanalytic Approach to Autism
PARIS — “Le Mur,” or “The Wall,” a small documentary film about autism released online last year, might normally not have attracted much attention.
But an effort by French psychoanalysts to keep it from public eyes has helped to make it into a minor cause and shone a spotlight on the way children in France are treated for mental health problems.
The documentary, the first film by Sophie Robert, follows two autistic boys: Guillaume, who has been treated with the behavioral, or “American,” approach; and Julien, who has been kept in an asylum for six years and treated with psychoanalysis. Guillaume, though challenged, is functioning at a high level in school. Julien is essentially silent, locked out of society.
January 20, 2012: Thinking Person's Guide to Autism published A Culture of Abuse: Autism Care in France.
Many of you readers who are not citizens of France may wonder why you should care about autism in France, and why I am inviting you today to help we French address the problems with autism in France.
My belief is that the “moral duty to intervene” exists. In France, Human Rights infringements for autistic people are severe and persistent enough to mandate foreign intervention in the debate.
January 26, 2012: Sophie Robert and David Heurtevent will give a press conference in English in New York City. Sophie Robert will discuss the court decision and David will launch an international campaign to stop abuse of autistics in France.
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