Asperger's syndrome
Related people
A serious disorder resembling autism, usually manifesting in school age with poor ability to communicate, abnormal speech, lack of empathy and imagination, repetitive activities. The disorder continues throughout a person's life. Aetiology unclear; thought by some to be a subgroup of autism and not a clinical entity.
Hans Asperger in 1944 published a paper that described a pattern of behaviours in several young boys who had normal intelligence and language development, but who also exhibited autistic-like behaviours and marked deficiencies. Leo Kanner (1894-1981) described infantile autism in 1943.
We thank Jared Stewart for information submitted.
Bibliography
- Eugen Bleuler:
Das autistische Denken.
Jahrbuch für psychoanalytische und psychopathologische Forschungen, Leipzig & Wien, volume 4, 1912.
The Swiss psychiatrist and pyschologist Eugen Bleuler (1857-1939) coined the term autism, from the Greek word "Autos", which means self. - L. Kanner:
Autistic disturbances of affective contact.
The Nervous Child, New York, 1943, 2: 217–250. - H. Asperger:
Die "autistischen Psychopathen" im Kindesalter.
Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, Berlin, 1944, 117: 76-136. - Samuil S. Mnukhin and D. N. Isaev:
On the organic nature of some forms of schizoid or autistic psychopathy.
Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia, 1975, 5: 99-108.
Mnukhin and Isaev found a high incidence of epileptic seizures in autistic children, indicating autism has an organic, neurological basis. - L. Wing:
Asperger's syndrome: A clinical account.
Psychological Medicine, London, 1981, 11: 115-129.