• Director(s):

    GEORGET (Anne)

  • Producer(s):

    GLORIA FILMS PRODUCTION, ARTE FRANCE

  • Territories:

    Worldwide.

  • Production year:

    2000

  • Language(s):

    German, French

  • Rights:

    TV, DVD

A journey through the lively and moving history of autism. For half a century, autism has been at the centre of a major debate on the relationship between the brain and behaviour....

Five generations of autistic patients as well as the parents of autistic children contribute. They explain the depths of their suffering.
Since it was identified fifty years ago, autism has remained a medical puzzle.
In 1943, American psychiatrist Leo Kanner defined autism on the basis of a study of eleven children. Meanwhile, Austrian doctor Hans Asperger carried out a similar study. This phase of discovery was followed by a phase of explanation. Great figures from the world of psychology, including Bruno Bettelheim and Eric Shopler, turned their attention to this disturbing illness. They were the gurus of autism for ten or twenty years. This film uses archive footage of their work with autistic children.
Parents, doctors and psychiatrists all agree that love is a vital factor in the struggle to help the child gradually turn towards the world outside himself.