in a 2016 paper entitled "correcting the record: leo kanner and autism," drs. james harris and joseph piven maintain that kanner did not go through a middle period in which he blamed parents. instead, kanner was describing characteristics of the parents which would later be viewed as part of the broader autism phenotype. for example, in a 1956 paper kanner and a co-author wrote, "if one considers the personalities of the parents who have been described as successfully autistic, the possibility suggests itself that they may represent milder manifestations and that the children show the full emergence of the latent structure." in addition, the early 1940s was still a period when eugenics was held in respect, and in the united states, sterilization of people with intellectual disability was legal. furthermore, this was a period in which psychoanalysis with its emphasis on early life experiences was the dominant view among the clinical and scientific establishment. in addition, if autism was in fact caused by negative parenting, that would seem to offer more hope for treatment of the child and/or family.