--- abstract: "Autism represents a pervasive cascade of developmental (psychological) failures. Therefore the primary deficit in autism, the necessary and sufficient cause, should be a very early psychological failure. Genes and other biological factors linked to autism are neither necessary nor sufficient to cause autism. Nor could biological factors have changed quickly enough to account for recent changes in the incidence of autism. Biological factors must work indirectly, by increasing the probability of the primary deficit. Brain differences may be secondary to early social deprivation. The personality, like all other dynamic systems, must self-organize from a few simple components. I summarize in this paper some of the evidence that a very early step in the self-organization of the personality is the internalization of the image of the mother's eyes. I propose that failure to internalize that image is the primary deficit in autism. Recent dramatic increases in the incidence of autism coincide with dramatic increases in the very early use of non-maternal child care including TV, video and computer games. Reduced exposure to the mother's gaze would mitigate against internalizing the image of the mother's eyes. My hypothesis predicts that autism is statistically linked to early non-maternal child care. This prediction has implications for preventing autism. It should be confirmed or refuted by the current Norwegian-American study, The Autism Birth Cohort." altloc: - http://home.earthlink.net/~maxmcdowell/Autism-Statistical.html chapter: ~ commentary: ~ commref: "Autism, Early Narcissitic Injury and Self-Organization: A Role for the Image of the Mother's Eyes. http://home.earthlink.net/~maxmcdowell/eye22.html" confdates: ~ conference: ~ confloc: ~ contact_email: ~ creators_id: [] creators_name: - family: McDowell given: Maxson J. honourific: Doctor lineage: '' date: 2004-08 date_type: published datestamp: 2004-08-10 department: ~ dir: disk0/00/00/37/47 edit_lock_since: ~ edit_lock_until: ~ edit_lock_user: ~ editors_id: [] editors_name: - family: Goertzel given: Ben honourific: '' lineage: '' - family: Combs given: Allan honourific: '' lineage: '' - family: Germine given: Mark honourific: '' lineage: '' eprint_status: archive eprintid: 3747 fileinfo: /style/images/fileicons/text_html.png;/3747/1/Autism%2DStatistical.html full_text_status: public importid: ~ institution: ~ isbn: ~ ispublished: inpress issn: ~ item_issues_comment: [] item_issues_count: 0 item_issues_description: [] item_issues_id: [] item_issues_reported_by: [] item_issues_resolved_by: [] item_issues_status: [] item_issues_timestamp: [] item_issues_type: [] keywords: 'Autism, cause, cascade, psychological failure, non-maternal childcare, image, eyes, self-organization, early, infant, television, video, primary deficit' lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:55:39 latitude: ~ longitude: ~ metadata_visibility: show note: ~ number: ~ pagerange: ~ pubdom: FALSE publication: Dynamical Psychology publisher: ~ refereed: FALSE referencetext: |-2 Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., Skinner, R., Martin, J., & Clubley, E. 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(Also online at http://home.earthlink.net/~maxmcdowell/eye22.html.) National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (2003). Study of early childcare and youth development: does amount of time spent in child care predict socioemotional adjustment during the transition to kindergarten? Child Development, 74(4): 976-1005. Pollack, R. 1997. The Creation of Dr B.: a Biography of Bruno Bettleheim. New York: Simon and Schuster. Rideout, V. J., Vandewater, E. A., & Wartella, E. A. (2003). Zero to six: electronic media in the lives of infants, toddlers and preschoolers. Report #3378, Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. http://www.kff.org/entmedia/3378.cfm Rodier, P. M. (2000). The early origins of autism. Scientific American, February: 56-63. Trepagnier, C. (1998). Autism etiology: a face-processing perspective. Brain and Cognition, 37(1):158-60. relation_type: [] relation_uri: [] reportno: ~ rev_number: 8 series: ~ source: ~ status_changed: 2007-09-12 16:53:12 subjects: - dev-psy succeeds: ~ suggestions: ~ sword_depositor: ~ sword_slug: ~ thesistype: ~ title: Is Autism Statistically Linked to Early Non-Maternal Child Care? type: journale userid: 958 volume: 2004