Autism historical perspective
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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]
Overview
Historical Perspective
A few examples of autistic symptoms and treatments were described long before autism was named. The Table Talk of Martin Luther contains a story of a 12-year-old boy who may have been severely autistic.[1] According to Luther's notetaker Mathesius, Luther thought the boy was a soulless mass of flesh possessed by the devil, and suggested that he be suffocated.[2] Victor of Aveyron, a feral child caught in 1798, showed several signs of autism; the medical student Jean Itard treated him with a behavioral program designed to help him form social attachments and to induce speech via imitation.[3]
The New Latin word autismus (English translation autism) was coined by the Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler in 1910 as he was defining symptoms of schizophrenia. He derived it from the Greek word autos (αὐτός, meaning self), and used it to mean morbid self-admiration, referring to "autistic withdrawal of the patient to his fantasies, against which any influence from outside becomes an intolerable disturbance."[4]
The word autism first took its modern sense in 1938 when Hans Asperger of the Vienna University Hospital adopted Bleuler's terminology "autistic psychopaths" in a lecture in German about child psychology.[5] Asperger was investigating a form of ASD now known as Asperger syndrome, though for various reasons it was not widely recognized as a separate diagnosis until 1981.[3] Leo Kanner of the Johns Hopkins Hospital first used autism in its modern sense in English when he introduced the label early infantile autism in a 1943 report of 11 children with striking behavioral similarities.[6] Almost all the characteristics described in Kanner's first paper on the subject, notably "autistic aloneness" and "insistence on sameness", are still regarded as typical of the autistic spectrum of disorders. It is not known whether Kanner derived the term independently of Asperger.[7]
Kanner's reuse of autism led to decades of confused terminology like "infantile schizophrenia", and child psychiatry's focus on maternal deprivation during the mid-1900s led to misconceptions of autism as an infant's response to "refrigerator mothers". Starting in the late 1960s autism was established as a separate syndrome by demonstrating that it is lifelong, distinguishing it from mental retardation and schizophrenia and from other developmental disorders, and demonstrating the benefits of involving parents in active programs of therapy.[8] As late as the mid-1970s there was little evidence of a genetic role in autism; now it is thought to be one of the most heritable of all psychiatric conditions.[9] The rise of parent organizations and the destigmatization of childhood ASD have deeply affected how we view ASD, its boundaries, and its treatments.[3] The Internet has helped autistic individuals bypass nonverbal cues and emotional sharing that they find so hard to deal with, and has given them a way to form online communities and work remotely.[10] Sociological and cultural aspects of autism have developed: some in the community seek a cure, while others believe that autism is simply another way of being.[11]
References
- ↑ Wing L (1997). "The history of ideas on autism: legends, myths and reality". Autism. 1 (1): 13–23. doi:10.1177/1362361397011004.
- ↑ Miles M (2005). "Martin Luther and childhood disability in 16th century Germany: what did he write? what did he say?". Independent Living Institute. Retrieved 2007-07-18.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Wolff S (2004). "The history of autism". Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 13 (4): 201–8. doi:10.1007/s00787-004-0363-5. PMID 15365889.
- ↑ Kuhn R; tr. Cahn CH (2004). "Eugen Bleuler's concepts of psychopathology". Hist Psychiatry. 15 (3): 361–6. doi:10.1177/0957154X04044603. PMID 15386868. The quote is a translation of Bleuler's 1910 original.
- ↑ Asperger H (1938). "Das psychisch abnormale Kind". Wien Klin Wochenschr (in German). 51: 1314–7.
- ↑ Kanner L (1943). "Autistic disturbances of affective contact". Nerv Child. 2: 217–50. "Reprint". Acta Paedopsychiatr. 35 (4): 100–36. 1968. PMID 4880460. Unknown parameter
|quotes=ignored (help) - ↑ Lyons V, Fitzgerald M (2007). "Asperger (1906–1980) and Kanner (1894–1981), the two pioneers of autism". J Autism Dev Disord. 37 (10): 2022–3. doi:10.1007/s10803-007-0383-3. PMID 17922179.
- ↑ Fombonne E (2003). "Modern views of autism". Can J Psychiatry. 48 (8): 503–5. PMID 14574825.
- ↑ Szatmari P, Jones MB (2007). "Genetic epidemiology of autism spectrum disorders". In Volkmar FR. Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders (2nd ed ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 157–78. ISBN 0521549574.
- ↑ Biever C (2007-06-30). "Web removes social barriers for those with autism". New Scientist (2610).
- ↑ Harmon A (2004-12-20). "How about not 'curing' us, some autistics are pleading". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-11-07.