Talk:Frances Tustin

Dates
How can she have been 81 years old when she died, if she was born in 1913 and died in 1990? SeverityOne (talk) 22:36, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

Decontextualization
The claim, that Tustin had seen autistic persons as "monsters", doesn't fit at all to Tustin's humanistic and empathic attitude towards autistic persons and persons in general. As source there's a text from 1992, which is probably the revised edition of her 1981 book "Autistic states in children". There I found the passage:

"Insulated by the autism, the unhealthy omnipotence becomes monstrous, so that when they begin to talk, autistic children will say such things as 'I am God' or 'I am king'. Indeed, these children are 'monsters' (see Sandra Stone's patient, Sam, who became a monster called Earthlifter, in Chapter 16)."

It's absolutely clear in this context that she is writing about children experiencing themselves as monsters. Do those people think the patient called Sam became a monster in reality?

Bettelheim's view isn't of interest at all in this article about Tustin.