Behavior Modification Therapies: An Overlapping History for Queer Autistics

TW: Psychiatric abuse, conversion therapy, torture, mentions of electric shock, outdated and homophobic diagnostic language, mentions of asylums, ableist mindsets, and violence.

Torture is a word a lot of people use to talk about "far away" and "historical" acts of psychological treatment. Saying that electric shock, withholding food and water, etc. are "barbaric means of the past" and no doctors, past Freud's time, would ever stoop so low. But what about conversion therapies and how some clinics, though relatively few, still are open today? And similarly, what about that clinic in Massachusetts (look it up, I'm not getting sued.) who still uses shock therapies on their disabled patients? And what about queer autistic people, possibly being subjected to both of these inhumane therapies?

There's a disturbing marriage between these two, horrible histories. Ole Ivar Lovaas, who already was a horrifying monster, "a poet with a cattle prodder" some people called him, due to the fabricated nature he portrayed his autistic patients, the false information he used to justify cruel and abusive behavior conditioning, and partnered with George Rekers, a southern baptist, extremely hateful toward the LGBTQIA+ community. Together these two birthed and brought forth an already existing force, foundational in the mind of 19th and 20th century, western psychologists: Teach patients to "change" with fear. Striking them, not just once, but for the rest of their lives. Conformity is expected with colonizing standards.

In Eric Garcia's book: We're Not Broken: Changing the Conversation About Autism, he uses his expertise, and journalistic talents and explores the connection between the illusion of both "curing" autism and queerness, and how they both move, symbiotically. Festering off the wounding logic of the other. In 1974 Lovaas, who conducted applied behavioral analysis research at UCLA, which included physically punishing his autistic patients, brought his experimental ideas to Rekers. Together they developed a study specifically to "treat" a five-year-old boy named Kraig, believed to be suffering from "sissy syndrome" due to his desires to wear dresses, play with dolls, etc.

The two, braided techniques interwove and looked a little something like blue and red poker chips were introduced to Kraig after he implemented a set of certain behaviors. Kraig was given blue poker chips when he had done something "masculine" such as picking "boy-appropriate" toys, playing sports with other boys, etc., thus allowing him to trade them in for candy. The red chips were given when Kraig expressed his natural choice in clothes, toys, or other activities that his family deemed "feminine", which meant that his father would come home after work and spank him. Notoriously, Lovaas used "behavior corrections" such as these to coerce his young, autistic patients, to his desired behavioral outcomes (ceasing to stim for the moment, speaking, etc.) and the consequences were similar if they did not comply, resulting in a batch of verbal/physical/electrical punishment.

To no one's surprise, none of these tactics worked and did not change any long-term behavior. Unfortunately, the continuous years of homophobic, behavior modification tactics resulted in Kraig ending his life in 2003. Justice against Lovaas, Rekers, and his parents, was never pursued, though It was clear to Kraig's siblings that the suicide was connected.

You may not see autistic or queer desires presently in front of you, but that doesn't mean that they're gone. In my own experience, my autism and queerness never left, no matter the external messaging I was receiving/abused with and I was grateful those parts of me metaphorically chose to hold on, hide, and come back when the coast seemed clear, but what happened to Kraig is a disgusting injustice. To not only experience extreme family/psychiatric abuse but to also have his life "propped" for their careers is vomiting.

Both Lovaas and Rekers felt like UCLA's Feminine Boy Project, their collected research on sexuality, and the resulting "success" of Kraig not publicly showcasing any "feminine" or gay interests, was triumphant. Not only did they ignore the inevitable outcome of their cruelty, what they had done to destroy Kraig's life, but it encouraged the further development of their sadistic legacies: Homophobic conversion therapies continued to open up new clinics, promising families that they would cure their child's, husband's, wife's, partner's of their queerness by instating Lovaas's applied behavioral analysis techniques: demanding submission after rounds and rounds of torturous, abusive, and un-scientific, physical therapies that cause a similar spike of suicidal tendencies amongst conversion survivors. A similar pattern is expressed by some autistic adults when they reflect on how "empty" they feel from having their stims and other autistic behavior repressed into their psyche - again, never leaving. But the dis-attachment, shame, and grieving that comes from suppressing the natural, joyful aspects of yourself do affect topics of identity in later adults, resulting in depressive or suicidal thoughts/actions.

The co-existing history between the creation of ABA and conversion therapies is a tricky one to talk about, let alone showcase its horrifying attributes for either informative purposes or artistically, healing expressions; the closet art form I've ever seen at least try to explicitly show these horrors is American Horror Story: Asylum. Even though my critiques of the season is long (plus my problems with the show in general, whoever let Ryan Murphy out from their basement,...) I do think Sarah Paulson's character, Lana Waters, is an interesting angle into the truthful mechanics of some behavioral therapies.

Lana, a queer reporter held against her will in an asylum, not only experiences a series of electric-shock therapies, a common treatment for gay, disabled, or people deemed to be "enemies of the state", but entrusts the help of a sneaky, snaky, therapist played by Zachary Quinto. Believing that he will finally help her escape, she agrees to enlist in his new "experimental" therapies that he believes will "cure" her attraction to women. In a twist of events, things end up a lot more dangerous than Lana expected and now she must survive.

Supposedly, Oliver Thredson is based on a real serial killer, but what I find interesting is that Ryan Murphy didn't choose to include Lovaas and Rekers, who implemented some of the therapies actually performed on autistic and queer patients. A lot of them (the washing machine, aversion therapies paired with slide shows, physical torture, withholding food, etc.) are historically accurate and require no need to be dissected from the real names - perhaps Murphy was nervous to include how closely related autism and queerness really is in the conversation of behavior modification? Or since, because Lana is never stated to be neurodivergent, Murphy was reluctant to open up that can of worms and focused more on the history he could relate to as a gay man, and that Sarah and Zachary could relate to, due to them also being queer? (although, he has a history of making fun of autism In other shows like Glee and Scream Queens.) Avoid backlash from applied behavioral analysts. Or maybe it was just that the names didn't match the historical period of the season (1964)?

I'm just saying, if handled delicately, and respectfully handed off to institutional and mental health survivors, disabled, and neurodivergent horror creatives, I think there's a real potential for our culture to grabble with psychology's abusive history in an artistic format: opportunities that unveil the intentions behind behavior modification therapies, where they come from, and who do they actually serve, even after Lovaas and Rekers are long gone?