I think I found the original Autism diagnosis

Post Reply New Topic

I believe that this is a portion of the original diagnosis for Autism as dementia praecox (Latin for premature madness) by the American Psychiatric Association (then called the American Medico-Psychological Association). Dementia praecox was later changed to schizophrenia in the DSM (the DSM-I). The link to the book and the free Google download page is below the quotation.

I think that particular description is referring soley to Schizophrenia. The author(s) seem to be using the term 'Autistic' there in its strictest dictionary sense of "a tendency to view life in terms of one's own needs and desires. " I don't get the impression that they are referring to 'Autistic' as a specific disorder in itself in that particular remark, though I have no idea when the term 'Autistic' was first used as a distinct disorder unto itself. It may have been concurrent with that listing, IDK. For Hans Asperger to be breaking it down into sub-categories by 1947, I would assume the term was in common therapeutic use at least a decade before that, probably more. I wouldn't be shocked to see it used as early as 1918.

I love that term "Mental Hygiene"

I love going to the Mentalist - his Mental Hygienist is hot.

Until the DSM-III (1980), Autism was considered as being a part of schizophrenia (or dementia praecox). In 1962, I was diagnosed with childhood schizophrenia according to the DSM-I.

The mental hygiene movement was one of the sources of the eugenics movement.

Interesting find.

It's good to have the historical documentation.

Nope, the term autism was borrowed from its use in Schizophrenia when the disorder was first described by Kanner, not the other way around.

This description you posted is clearly one of a mental illness with psychotic aspects that are not found in autism.

Autism has been studied for a century, but it was not diagnosed apart from the schizophrenic spectrum until around 1980. You are not talking about the same issue as I am.

Schizoid PD is in the DSM-I, as is Simple Schizophrenia (the latter being called dementia simplex in the late 1800s).

Both capture autism without the need for "positive symptoms" of Schizophrenia.

Yes, from 1918-1980, Autistics were "officially" placed on the schizophrenic spectrum. It was a difficult time to live through - getting electric shock treatments at 11-years old, etc. Many, even most, of the other children with me in the psychiatric hospital may have also been on the Autism spectrum.

Dementia praecox is schizophrenia, not autism. At first, it was an adult-only diagnosis, and then people realized there were rare cases of children with the condition as well. There was a period (around 1940s-1960s) where the diagnosis of childhood schizophrenia was broad enough to include many kids who would now be considered autistic, but the first description of childhood schizophrenia (in 1933) were children with obvious psychotic features.

The word 'autism' was originally a symptom (social aloofness) rather than a diagnosis. This symptom is quite common in schizophrenia as well as autism. Leo Kanner, in 1943, described children with 'early infantile autism', distinguishing this from schizophrenic autism because the children were aloof even in early infancy, instead of having a period of normal development.

(I went through a period of obsessively researching the history of autism and schizophrenia. Fascinating stuff, really.)

I'll give psychologists and MDs a C for diagnosis, and an F for treatment.

And I think we should take a page from the struggle for Gay Rights. Yes, good-hearted professionals can help out, but they don't run the show.

Pretty much, if any of us write a paragraph about what it is like being a human being on the Autism Spectrum, we can reach the level of DSM. (In part, because the standards are low!) But continue doing our best work, we should aspire higher, mistakes and all. Mistakes are texture, that kind of attitude.

And here is legal reformer Jeremy Bentham (we now think of him as a philosopher).

Yes, it's close to two centuries ago, and it's a humorous section of a newspaper so it's a little hard to know how to read, but . . . I think this is stimming.