Feeling safe
comes first.

1940s-1960s - Refrigerator Mother Theory

Bruno Bettelheim falsely claimed autism was caused by emotionally cold mothers. Autistic children were removed from families and institutionalised. Parents, particularly mothers, were blamed and shamed for their children's autism. His 1967 book The Empty Fortress gave this theory mainstream credibility for decades.

Throughout 20th century - Mass institutionalisation

Autistic people were routinely institutionalised, often for life, with no prospect of return to community. Conditions were frequently abusive, neglectful, and dehumanising. Families were told to forget their children existed.

1960s-present - Early ABA and aversive conditioning

O. Ivar Lovaas developed Applied Behaviour Analysis using electric shocks, physical punishment, and food deprivation to eliminate "Autistic behaviours." His 1987 study claimed to make children "indistinguishable from neurotypical peers" - framing the erasure of Autistic identity as a treatment goal. The same behavioural methods were also used by Lovaas in conversion therapy for gay youth. ABA in various forms remains widely used today; the research base on its harms is growing.

1971-present - Judge Rotenberg Center, Massachusetts USA

The Judge Rotenberg Educational Center used a device called the Graduated Electronic Decelerator (GED) to administer electric shocks to disabled people, including Autistics, as a behaviour management tool. The FDA banned the device in 2020. The ban was subsequently challenged in court. The centre continues to operate.

1990s-2010s - "Cure" culture and pseudoscientific treatments

Autistic children were subjected to a range of discredited and dangerous "treatments" promoted as cures: secretin injections, chelation therapy, hyperbaric oxygen chambers, and Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS) - an industrial bleach marketed by Kerri Rivera and others as a cure for autism and administered as enemas to children. Parents acting in good faith were targeted by predatory practitioners.

Ongoing - Restraint, seclusion and denial of autonomy

Physical restraint and seclusion continue to be used in schools, hospitals, and care settings across Australia and internationally. Autistic people continue to have decisions made for them without consent - about their bodies, their relationships, their communication, and their lives. The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability (Australia, 2019-2023) documented the scale and ongoing nature of this harm.

1900s onwards - Pathologising difference

Children who could not sit still, could not focus on demand, or did not learn in expected ways were labelled morally deficient, lazy, defiant, or unintelligent. Many were excluded from education, punished physically in schools, or placed in remedial settings that did not meet their actual needs. The trauma of being labelled "the bad kid" early in life is something many neurodivergent adults still carry.

1960s onwards - Behaviour-first responses

ADHD, learning disabilities, sensory processing differences, and developmental coordination differences were treated primarily as behavioural problems. Interventions focused on extinguishing visible behaviours rather than understanding what was happening for the person. Children were medicated, punished, restrained, or excluded for traits that are now understood as core neurological differences.

1970s onwards - Misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis

Girls, women, gender-diverse people, and people from culturally and racially marginalised backgrounds were systematically under-diagnosed for ADHD, autism, and other forms of neurodivergence. Many were misdiagnosed instead with anxiety, depression, personality disorders, eating disorders, or dismissed entirely. The result was decades of people internalising the message that something was fundamentally wrong with them as a person, when what was happening was a missed neurodivergent profile.

Ongoing - Compliance-based education and workplaces

Schools, workplaces, and care settings continue to expect neurotypical attention, neurotypical pacing, neurotypical communication, and neurotypical executive functioning as the baseline. People who cannot meet that baseline are still routinely labelled lazy, careless, attention-seeking, or difficult. The cost of being told this for years, often from childhood, is well documented in research on rejection sensitive dysphoria, internalised shame, and burnout in neurodivergent adults.

Ongoing - The Royal Commission findings

The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability (Australia, 2019-2023) documented harm to neurodivergent people across education, health, justice, and care settings, including the use of restraint, seclusion, and exclusion as standard responses to neurodivergent traits.

Early 20th century - Criminalisation

Same-sex relationships were criminalised across Australia, with people imprisoned, fined, and publicly shamed. Decriminalisation occurred state by state between 1975 and 1997, with Tasmania the last to decriminalise in 1997. Criminal records issued before decriminalisation were not formally expunged in many jurisdictions until decades later.

1950s-1970s - Pathologisation

Homosexuality was classified as a mental disorder by the American Psychiatric Association until 1973, and was used as grounds for involuntary psychiatric admission, electroconvulsive therapy without consent, and forced "treatment." Trans and gender-diverse people remained classified as having a mental disorder for far longer, with diagnostic frameworks only beginning to shift in the 2010s.

1950s-present - Conversion practices

LGBTIQA+ people, including children and young people, have been subjected to conversion practices intended to change sexual orientation or gender identity. These practices have included aversive behavioural conditioning (the same methods developed by Lovaas were used in conversion therapy for gay youth), religious "deliverance," talk therapy designed to induce shame, and forced separation from peers and partners. Conversion practices have been banned in Queensland (2020), Victoria (2021), the ACT (2020), New South Wales (2024) and Tasmania (2024). They have not yet been banned nationally.

1980s - HIV/AIDS crisis

Government and medical responses to the HIV/AIDS crisis were, in many places, slow, stigmatising, and shaped by homophobia. Gay and bisexual men, trans women, and sex workers experienced abandonment by health systems, exclusion from mainstream care, and public vilification. The grief and trauma of this era is still carried by older LGBTIQA+ community members today.

Ongoing - Healthcare exclusion and harm

LGBTIQA+ people, particularly trans, gender-diverse, and intersex people, continue to experience misgendering, gatekeeping, refusal of care, surgical interventions on intersex infants without consent, and being treated as research subjects rather than patients. Mental health services frequently lack training in LGBTIQA+ affirming care. Many community members report having to educate their own clinicians.

Ongoing - Family rejection and social exclusion

LGBTIQA+ children and young people continue to experience higher rates of family rejection, homelessness, school-based bullying, and suicidality than their peers. The cost of being told, implicitly or explicitly, that who you are is unacceptable, often from childhood, is documented across decades of research.