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wolventears
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20 Sep 2017, 9:28 pm

What are the oldest written books about autism?
How were they referred to in medieval times or more way back?



Hra1993
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21 Sep 2017, 2:16 am

Check out the book In A Different Key. It's the story of Autism. The first real study was on Donald Triplett in the US around the 40s. There is evidence of Autism prior to then, as it's always been here. It was often understood as Schizophrenia and other mental health problems. Some people, including children were euthanized to put them out of their misery and so they weren't a burden on society. There was a Scottish guy who we now know would have autism. His town accepted him, and knowing what we know now he'd be diagnosed with Autism. Around the 40s are the first records though. That's when studies began.



kraftiekortie
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21 Sep 2017, 3:38 am

Of course, the present notion and concept of "autism" started in the early 40s with Leo Kanner's studies. Many case studies of definitively autistic people were compiled in the 1940s.

There were published studies of apparently autistic people (though under different labels)even during the 1700s.



LegoMaster2149
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21 Sep 2017, 10:40 am

The term autism was coined in 1911 by a Swiss psychiatrist named Eugen Bleuer. Originally, the term was meant to refer to one group of symptoms that was related to schizophrenia.

-LegoMaster2149 (Written on September 21, 2017)



kraftiekortie
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21 Sep 2017, 10:44 am

Right. But it didn't refer to the syndrome which was "founded" by Kanner, and which is the basis for today's concept of "autism."

Bleuer was referring to the isolated and solipsistic nature of the schizophrenic's thought pattern. He was speaking specifically about schizophrenia (called dementia praecox in those days). He wasn't making an allusion to a non-schizophrenia developmental disorder.



naturalplastic
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21 Sep 2017, 6:08 pm

The book "Neuro Tribes" by Steve Silberman explains all of that quite well. The author is even interviewed by Alex in articles on this site.

Long story short: Kanner discover what would later be called "Low Functioning autism", and named it "autism" shortly after the war in the USA in the mid forties. But separately aspergers syndrome was discovered in Austria by Hans Aspergers in the 1930's, though the same thing was discovered even earlier, in the 1920's, by a Soviet lady scientists in the USSR (forget her name). In later decades they realized that aspergers and autism were different degrees of the same disorder and combined them on the same spectrum.

But records of folks who would now be classified as having aspergers and autism go back much earlier.



Voxish
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21 Sep 2017, 6:27 pm

LegoMaster2149 wrote:
The term autism was coined in 1911 by a Swiss psychiatrist named Eugen Bleuer. Originally, the term was meant to refer to one group of symptoms that was related to schizophrenia.

-LegoMaster2149 (Written on September 21, 2017)


Well done, that is spot on.

Just for the record, and this is well recorded...Leo Kanner, as amazing as his original paper was, he was a complete snake (I know more than a few who latter day meet this criterion) Kanner was quite ruthless in those who which he was prepared to recognise (and would fit his ever-shifting worldview) and those contributions he would not.


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