Dibs in Search of Self

True account of a brilliant and apparently autistic boy, with emotionally distant and abusive parents, who is successfully treated using play therapy. Nicely done, although somewhat outdated, since a) diagnosis of autism had not been established, b) boy is ‘cured’ quickly over a few months, and c) reinforces the idea popular at the time, that autism was caused by ‘refrigerator parents’. Woman offers another person a cigarette.

Mother says that boy’s conception was an accident; they had not intended to have any children.