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History Of Autism Pioneers
By Rachel Evans
Autism does not have a long history, and this is due to the fact
that the history of autism really didn’t begin until the first decade of the 20th
century.
Although, autism as a condition was around prior to this time, it was not a recognized
condition and most people would have been regarded as insane. In fact, it wasn’t
even until the Swiss psychiatrist, Eugene Bleuler, coined the term “autism” in the
1912 issue of the American Journal of Insanity, did the term even exist.
However,
despite being the first person to use the term, Bleuler considered autism to be another
form of schizophrenia in which schizophrenic’s lacked social skills with others,
and were more absorbed in themselves. Bleuler’s study was the beginning of the history
of autism.
Although Bleuler may have been the first to recognize one of the most
common traits of autistics, there were three other pioneers of autism who really
set the wheels of autism research in motion. These three doctors had a huge impact
on what people believed autism was in the mid 1900’s, as well as how the disorder
is recognized today.
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Dr. Leo Kanner – (1894 – 1981) – Dr. Leo Kanner was an Austrian-
In his report,
Kanner discussed his research based on a group of eleven children who all closely
displayed the following traits:
• Difficulty processing
and adapting to changes
• Particularly good memory
• Belated echolalia (repeating
speech made by others)
• Exceedingly sensitive to sounds, and other stimulants
•
Food issues
• Good intellectual potential
He used the term autism to describe the
main characteristic all the children he studied displayed – little to no interest
in socializing with other people.
Dr. Hans Asperger (1906-
The first time he defined Asperger syndrome was in 1944, when he studied 4 young
boys and, like Kanner, found that each child displayed similar characteristics. He
identified these characteristic behaviors as autistic psychopathy.
Although Asperger
identified most of the same traits as Kanner, he didn’t note his group having delayed
echolalia. Alternatively, he said that the children had clumsy movements and irregular
motor skills compared to regular children, and also that they talked much like grown
ups.
Asperger referred to them as “little professors”.
Unfortunately, the findings of
Dr. Hans Asperger regarding autism were not widely discovered until the late 1980’s
even though his reports occurred much earlier in the history of autism.
It is believed that there were two main reasons why Asperger did not receive the
recognition he deserved until much later than his original observations. The first
reason was his findings were delayed due to World War II. The second was that his
work wasn’t written in English and was not translated until almost 50 years later.
Dr. Bruno Bettelhiem (1903-
In his work “The Empty Fortress”(1967), Bettelheim wrote about three therapy sessions with children who had infantile autism. He claimed that their disorder was caused by having emotionally cold mothers.
His theory was widely accepted, and for many years, parents (particularly mothers)
were considered the problem behind autism.
Today, Bettelhiem’s theory has been disregarded
by most. However, the characteristics described by Kanner and Asperger are still
used to define the basic behavioral patterns of autistics. Nevertheless, all of these
men have made a serious mark on the history of autism.
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