"the little professor"

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"please note: i am not trying to promote ayn rand in this thread. i just wanted to share what i'd noticed about her not turn taking properly."

Lol yeah this whole thing is a ruse to sell more copies of Atlas Shrugged

In other sections of the video I noticed that her eye contact was quite a bit more stable and appropriate. I think the only thing we have to go by in this video is 'the little professor' idea. She definitely seemed focused on what she wanted to say rather than what would best suit the situation or the interviewer or even the audience. Even though she took control of the conversation it didn't really flow that well at times.

Again I can't really comment on her work but I'll make an effort to read Atlas Shrugged in the future. It was on my 'list' anyway. I'll just push it forward a bit

i think once mike wallace stood up to her she decided she respected him and was going to take turns properly.

what is interesting is this later interview with phil donahue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzGFytGBDN8

she was in her 70's or 80's by then. you can see she talks in short sentences then, its like little professor mode is turned off.

i remain convinced ASD is developmental and i think this is a good example of it.

I'm watching the video now. May not have time to respond though.

Were you aware that autism is classified as a pervasive developmental disorder? I've also heard it described simply as developmental delay.

Despite Ssucharewa's work being published in Russian the iron curtain had yet to descend over the Soviet Union (happened much later during Stalin's era) and there was collaboration and communication between Russian and German scientists prior to 1933. Asperger was a thorough scientist and he almost certainly was aware of Ssucherewa's work on Schizoid psychopathy published in 1926 and had access to the work via translated reprints in Germany. He of course labelled the children psychopaths (autistic psychopaths) using the same language as Ssucharewa.

The fact he never used it in his published research was simply because Asperger was living in Nazi Germany and would not have been acceptable for him to source work from the Soviet Union.

The availability of the German reprints explains why both Hans Asperger and Leo Kanner (Both German speakers) came up with similar studies on children showing traits we now call autism at almost exactly the same time. Kanner of course took his research from Austria to John Hopkins in the USA.



I'm afraid this is fairly well documented. High functioning children with no speech delay would have passed scrutiny but I'm afraid children who had speech delays and/or significant stimming and social deficits were deemed "mutes" or ret*d by the Nazis and were either sterilized (if they were lucky) and later in the war many were sent to concentration camps.



I'm afraid it's a historical fact (that Asperger himself revealed) that his main intention was protecting the children from extermination camps. First of all Hans Asperger actually exhibited the same traits he found in the children he labelled Autistic psychopaths. Later research indicated that Asperger was himself likely to be an Asperger and may even had been a high functioning autistic born with a speech delay. Thus he had a vested interest to convince the Nazis of the usefulness of the children lest they connect the children's deficits with Asperger's own psychological condition.

Asperger called his young patients "little professors" and believed the individuals he described would be capable of exceptional achievement and original thought later in life. In a society governed by the Nazi eugenics policy of sterilizing and killing social deviants and the mentally handicapped, Asperger's passionately defended the value of autistic individuals, writing "We are convinced, then, that autistic people have their place in the organism of the social community. They fulfil their role well, perhaps better than anyone else could, and we are talking of people who as children had the greatest difficulties and caused untold worries to their care-givers.

do you have a link to the original source documents by hans asperger in english? this is interesting stuff

While autism was not identified as autism until the work of Kanner and Asperger in the 40s, people who had this condition were identified under other labels long before. So, yeah, while they wouldn't be referred to as autistic, they were definitely on the radar.

Unfortunately no, you can possibly locate this in hardcopy from a Medical library;
Asperger H; tr. and annot. Frith U (1991) [1944]. "'Autistic psychopathy' in childhood". In Frith U. Autism and Asperger syndrome. Cambridge University Press.

You may find the following interesting
Evidence Hans Asperger was autistic
http://www.springerlink.com/content/n00w0xl46510v681/

In addition the diagnosis for Aspergers was first coined by Bosch in 1962
Bosch G (1962). Der frühkindliche Autismus - eine klinische und phänomenologisch-anthropologische. Untersuchung am Leitfaden der Sprache. Berlin: Springer.

Hans Asperger referred to the children as "autistic psychopaths". It's funny why the Nazis thought "psychopaths" would make a great contribution to the Wermacht?

Simon Baron Cohen uses similar archaic terminology referring to autistics as "sociopaths"

thanks.. i guess you're the man of difficult to locate info.. books in a medical library, PDF's which cost $35 to buy

hopefully these resources will show up on the web at some point soon

this reminds me of how life was before the internet. i'm so glad that has changed now

anyways thanks for the info

ahh sorry, I have access to a university online library. Nowadays you can join libraries as a visitor and get access to their online resources. Depends of course on the institution.

Could be from speed