They plan to delete Asperger from DSM 5

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Lots of people know that "aut-" means "self". It's really a very easy etymological deduction.

autobiography
autograph
autoimmune
automatic
automobile
autodidact

Pattern's obvious... no Latin needed.

If the name wasn't Asperger, people would be more open to it. There would be less opposition unless it was another name just as easy to make bad puns out of. Since it's Asperger, I like Autism better.
Autism does lend to the social problems experienced by people with AS, but there are differences between LFA and AS. When people hear "Autism", they might think of someone who is quite different from many who have Asperger's. They will assume it's more severe. However, it was Hans A., himself, who describes Asperger's as having "a dash of Autism", so he must have known.
Many people are not aware of what Asperger is. They do have ideas about Autism, but, sometimes, those aren't accurate either.

@ Roman: I disagree about calling profound/severe autism "Asperger's". Why should the name for the more common diagnosis always be used, even if it is way less descrptive than the other term? I for one think autism is more descriptive than the Asperger's.

Autism and Asperger's are around the same in prevalence; they both take up about 50% of the spectrum.

Though, you usually find 1 in 500 for Autism and 1 in 300 for AS listed around the 'net. But, the latter is often including 1/3 of those with Autism into it. PDD-NOS makes up the other 50%.

I have no problem with calling Asperger's mild to moderately severe ASD, as that's what it is and can be, in addition to subclinical.

I'm still trying to figure out "normal variant personality" though, as isn't that introversion? I mean, introverted people have a more sensitive sensory system, they enjoy solitary activities and they tend to keep a few close friends; sounds like super-mild AS to me if there's no impairment there.

I'm in favour of merging AS with HFA. Once you get past the speaking part, they are virtually indistinguishable. The speaking element just seems arbitrary. Not only that but if people with AS just say that they're autistic, it's much quicker than going through the rigmarole of "What's Asperger's?" (which will almost certainly be mispronounced in some way).

I know some of this has already been said but that's just my two pennyworth.

hmm... so if asperger's doesn't exist, does that cure everybody with 'Cassandra Affective Disorder'

Why not just catogorize all of it under just autism spectrum disorders? Well, at least that is what the school does. They dx'd my son and although they thought he has AS, they gave him the code for ASD. I had to ask the slp off the record if it was autism he had or AS and she said AS. It was like they couldn't say the word AS in the meetings. They only referred to it as ASD. Now looking back, i could really see that he could have been HFA or even PDDnos. I have heard of people having the autism dx and then as they got older, learned to adapt, they got the AS dx.

They probably are doing that.

ASD, with some levels of severity thrown in (most severe, moderately severe and less severe). No other names involved.

Psychologists see personality disorders where the real `problem` is Autism or Aspergers-but the only problem there is that the majority of people are NT and expect NT behaviour and thinking from us.

I'd prefer just about anything to Aspergers because so many people are ignorant and have no idea what it means and my son gets all the usual insults about 'arsebergers'. I chose HFA because at least people have generally heard of Autism. Aspergers is just too complex for some people to understand. The Psychologist at my sons school told him earlier this year that he was a narcissist I felt like slapping her silly If a psychologist doesn't get it, what hope is there for my son

I actually like the term "Asperger's" but I guess ASD may be better. I have a TBI (traumatic brain injury) and that could mean a lot of things from being in a total care position kept alive by ventilators in a hospital to being a college professor, the range is huge, yet we are all TBI. There is nothing to differentiate between right-side brain damage to left-side, brain stem, etc. The medical Dx is just all lumped together with the whole range of cases.

BTW I am an NT mom to a NVLD stepson, does anyone know if NVLD will ever be on the DSM? (he's also been Dx with PDD-nos and CAPD and as 'math disabled' in 3 separate evaluations but for his IEP the school only got the most recent evaluation which was NVLD and I don't know where that falls on an IEP).

I don't mind HFA....I would prefer that to Asperger's. Like, I think, Orwell said, near the beginning of the thread...if I have to bring it up, I am more likely to say I am slightly autistic. I don't really like using the term "Asperger's"...and my "assessment" was so iffy anyway.....

I have a lot of autistic traits...but I "present" in a sort of unconventional way to a lot of aspies.......Which has always left me wondering where I would be on the spectrum.

Not sure then if I would be HFA or PDD-NOS...but I only skimmed the thread....so maybe I am out of touch...

I'd prefer it stayed as Asperger's. I guess I don't mind it being changed to HFA, but I'd prefer for it to stay as it is. There's really no need to change it or get rid of it.

As lots of other people have already said, the dividing line between AS, HFA and PDD-NOS is fuzzy. After all, each of these subtypes lie somewhere on the Spectrum. The autistic spectrum is like a colour spectrum, say, from black to white. Very severe LFA is dark black, while milder forms of autism are varying shades of grey. There comes a point where it is indistinguishable from normal variation (to extend the colour analogy, it's almost white but with a slight tinge of grey.)

Anyway, I don't think it makes sense to separate AS from HFA, but it does make sense to categorise autism in how severely it affects someone's day to day life. This seems obvious, but HFA is much more different from LFA than it is to AS, yet the current DSM implies the opposite. I'm all for a radical overhaul of the different groupings of autism, so long as people who are on the mild end of the spectrum aren't classified as NT.