Asperger's classification compared to hysteria?

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I think I've hit a new low in terms of my family's understanding of Asperger's. When I first determined that I must have it (as an adult), they were fairly dismissive, which was disappointing, but eh. I was just happy I finally understood. But the other day my mother sent me (and other members of my family) this, referring specifically to Asperger's being on there:

http://www.livescience.com/health/top10-Psychiatric-Disorders-Controversial.html

I already knew that they are considering reclassifying Asperger's as high functioning Autism. But this list of "Top 10 controversial psychiatric disorders" puts Asperger's alongside such "disorders" as "Hysteria" and "Penis Envy."



(For the record, I don't think of it is a "mental disorder", either. There is a lot of stuff in this top 10 ranking list that is just offensive to my sensibilities, highlighted by putting Asperger's on there as well as if it were some myth).

I think it is just you. Viewing that list and thinking that it compares Asperger's to hysteria is not understanding the list, at all.

Well, I read the site (the quote is below), and Asperger's isn't considered "controversial" because people think it doesn't exist, but because people think it doesn't exist as a separate disorder.

For a more concrete example, you might claim that, "Books with red covers are fundamentally different from other kinds of books, and should be given a separate name." The controversy would be from people who said, "Books with red covers are not different enough from all other sorts of books; they should all be called the same thing."

In this case, the people who are saying "AS doesn't exist" are not claiming that "Aspies are actually neurotypical." They're saying, "Aspies are better categorized as simply autistic spectrum."

Regarding their "44%" statistic, I can't say much; they're unfortunately lumping Asperger's and PDD-NOS cases together, and that doesn't say much about Asperger's as a disorder. The bigger question would be, "What's the reliability of an ASD diagnosis? What's the reliability of a specific ASD diagnosis?" In this case, apparently 44% of AS and PDD-NOS cases are misdiagnosed autistic disorder, which says to me that the specific categories are pretty near useless. Call it all autistic spectrum disorder, and leave it at that. ASDs are too variable, both throughout the lifetime and from person to person, to be subcategorized any further.

Re. the quote from the AANE, stating that "some Asperger's doesn't fit into HFA," yes, that's true. But the changes being advocated aren't to get rid of Asperger's and assume that all Aspies will fit the present definition of autism; it's to broaden the present definition of autism to cover Asperger's.