While I’m pretty happy with these, you should take them with a grain of salt, like most unpublished papers.
Abstract: Autism, categorized as a Pervasive Development Disorder (PDD), is characterized by impaired social interaction, impaired communication, and repetitive behavior. The cause of the disorder has been unclear since its first description by Kanner in 1943. Historically, the prevailing explanation was psychogenic in nature, namely that the mother’s emotional “frigidity” is to blame (giving rise to the term “refrigerator mother”). This reasoning resulted in the suffering and guilt of many caregivers who faced such an accusation. Through the 1970s, this theory was largely assumed to be correct, but most modern clinicians believe that the etiology is mostly genetic and neurological in nature. Recent research was thought to put an end to this debate on environmental factors, yet present-day proponents of the psychogenic model still assert that poor parenting explains the disorder.