Dr. Asperger and the Nazis

Dr Hans Asperger and friend

We could have been much further ahead in our understanding of autism, according to author Steve Silberman (NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity), had World War II and the Nazi invasion and annexation of Austria not put a halt to the work of Dr. Hans Asperger (1906-1980). Instead, it has been only in the last 20 or so years that we've slowly come to understand it the way Asperger did in the 1930s. That was when the Austrian pediatrician noticed and began to study autistic characteristics. He was, says Silberman, a very forward-thinking clinician, and the clinic he ran "was not just the sort of place where parents would bring their children for evaluation and a diagnosis, but it was also like a residential school.” Living in the clinic with the children, he was able to get to know them on a personal basis, and he came to feel that autism was a genetic, lifelong condition but not necessarily a debilitating one, if the individuals were given the support they needed. This was quite different from the point of view of the American Leo Kanner, whose much narrower definition and idea of the "refrigerator mother" ruled in this country for decades. “Asperger always appreciated that autism was a condition that conveyed both profound disabilities and very special gifts,” Silberman says. “Kanner, on the other hand, interpreted even the gifts of his patients through the lens of psychopathology" (story, link to audio version): http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-09-20/new-book-recounts-forgotten-history-autism