“After You Hit a Child, You Can’t Just Get Up and Leave Him: You are Hooked to That Kid”. A Conversation With Ivar Lovaas About Self-Mutilating Children and How Their Parents Make it Worse.

The article deals with the autistic child, its aberrant behaviors such as extreme tantrums, self-stimulatory behaviors, & self-destructive behaviors. The article considers self-mutilative behavior in particular. Electric shock and spanking as punishment were successful in controlling self-mutilative behavior. When an autistic child injures himself and you give him lots of attention, you are rewarding him for injuring himself. You are actually teaching him to self-mutilate.