refrigerator mother
- noun
- /rɪˈfrɪdʒəˌreɪtər ˈmʌðər/
- Slur
:
[término ofensivo y arcaico que acusaba a la madre de causar autismo por ser fría y emocionalmente distante]
- Many psychologists in the past wrongly attributed autism to the behavior of refrigerator mothers, believing that their lack of warmth caused the condition.
Examples
-
In the 20th century, the term refrigerator mother was used to describe a mother whose emotional detachment was inaccurately thought to lead to autism.
-
He argued that the leading cause of autism was the refrigerator mother, who didn't love her child as she should have.
-
The concept of the refrigerator mother highlighted the harmful stereotype that a mother's coldness could negatively impact her child's development.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound 'refrigerator mother' transparently evokes the idea of a cold or emotionally distant mother because 'refrigerator' implies coldness and 'mother' is literal, so a B1 learner could guess an emotional-coldness metaphor. However, the full historical/clinical sense—that such maternal coldness was believed to cause autism—is specialized and not predictable from the parts alone, making the item only partially inferable.
Etymology
Refrigerator mother came from a cruel image used long ago: doctors said a mother was as cold as a refrigerator, meaning she was not warm or loving. They wrongly said this 'cold' behavior 'caused autism', and today we know this idea was wrong and harmful.
