Dr. Bernard Rimland, who passed away on 21 November 2006 at age 78, is a hero and savior to tens of thousands of autistic children and their families worldwide. Dr Rimland brought autism out of what has now been called “the dark ages”. He banished guilt from parents; he brought hope and improvements; he integrated autistic children into the mainstream of society. For at least 1,100 such children, he brought full recovery.
Autism is treatable
| “Autism is treatable” is the good doctor’s mantra. This is a proclamation that many medical professionals are still unable to accept, even though Dr. Bernard Rimland offers documentary proof such as “before” and “after” videos showing previously autistic children who have become indistinguishable from regular kids. Dr Bernard Rimland is himself the parent of an autistic child, Mark, born in 1956. Despite having earned a PhD in psychology, he never knew the word “autism” – until his wife recalled reading in college about children with symptoms similar to theirs, and he saw the word in an old book dug out from his garage. At that time, psychoanalysts believed that autism was caused by “refrigerator mothers” – cold, unfeeling mothers who sub-consciously rejected their children. Apart from drugging such children senseless, other treatments for autistic children at the time involved having them kick and spit at statues resembling their mothers. Those were, indeed, the dark ages. |  |
Dr Bernard Rimland knew that his wife was not cold. He knew that the “refrigerator mother” theory was wrong and destructive – and hurtful to parents!
A biological disorder
His research led him to discover that autism is, in fact, a biological disorder – a problem with the body, not the mind and certainly not the mother. His 1964 book, Autism: The Syndrome and Its Implications for a Neural Theory of Behavior, changed the world of autism forever. In 1965, Dr Rimland founded the National Society for Autistic Children (today the Autism Society of America) to promote a highly controversial behavioral modification therapy developed by Ivar Lovass. That therapy, known today as ABA or Applied Behavioral Analysis, has since helped many autistic kids to improve their condition greatly.
Taking a lead from parents of autistic children, Dr Rimland next investigated the use of high dose vitamin B6. The idea that a vitamin could treat a brain disorder was considered preposterous. Today, vitamin B6 has been scientifically proven to benefit autistic children.
In 1967, he founded the Autism Research Institute (ARI), which has become the foremost autism research organization in the world today. The ARI has identified a long list of biological and environmental factors that either cause or contribute to autism – heavy metals, yeast and bacteria infection, nutritional deficiency, intestinal disorders, sensitivity to gluten and casein (grain and milk protein) and so on. With that, it developed a comprehensive range of effective treatments.
Incidentally, Dr Rimland played a role in drawing public attention to autism when he served as technical advisor to the 1988 Academy Award winning movie, Rainman, which starred Dustin Hoffman as an autistic savant.
Dr Rimland’s career coincided with a period when the rate of autism sky-rocketed – by several fold during the 1980s and 1990s, and by several thousand percent since the 1960s. Thus, he stirred more controversy when, in 1995, he suggested that vaccination, particularly the use of mercury in vaccines, might be a possible cause of “the autism epidemic”.
Defeat Autism Now!
Not surprisingly, the medical establishment reacted with scorn and antagonism. That same year, Dr Bernard Rimland created, Defeat Autism Now! (DAN!) as a platform for top researchers to identify causes of autism and promote safe and effective treatments that the medical establishment would not investigate.
DAN! began as a small meeting of a few scientists. It flourished into a huge worldwide movement with some of its DAN! Conferences offering standing room only. I am honored to have met Dr Bernard Rimland in 2005 in Los Angeles while attending the DAN! Conference. I was there largely for my teenage autistic daughter as well as about a hundred other autistic children under my care.
Dr Bernard Rimland exuded an air of fatherly kindness and he had a simple message for me: “Believe in your children. Never give up on them. Autism is treatable.” I came away from the conference with renewed hope and strength that my daughter – and the children under my care – can get better. His words live on in me and in our children.
- John Yeo, MSc
The tribute was written by John Yeo, a nutritionist at the Autism Recovery Centre and published in TODAY newspaper on November 28. TODAY is Singapore’s second most widely read newspaper, with a readership exceeding 500,000.
