Did Hans Asperger do the right thing?

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Steve Silberman in his new book "NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity" reports that Asperger intentionally only reported on his 4 most "able" patients in his now famous paper in an apparent attempt keep autistics safe from Nazi eugenics. Another words a public relations move that made his patients look more functional then they actually were.

I believe what he did was necessary and right under the difficult circumstances. I believe that the resultant widening of what Autism is believed to be has been beneficial. But I also believe what he and Lorna Wing who popularized the term "Asperger Syndrome" for somewhat similar Public Relations reasons did has come at a high and continuing cost. The cost is mainly the stereotype of the Aspie as the socially awkward but overall high functioning genius. For those Aspies who don’t fit the stereotype and that is most of us we have the same problems of being close enough to normal that most expect us to be normal, but we have less ability leading to more exhaustion or just an inability to pull it off. There have been many other factors in creating this stereotype including Steve Silberman's 2001 article “The Geek Syndrome” and the various DSM mistakes I have endlessly discussed (another unfortunate result of stereotype is the seemingly universal belief Aspergers in the DSM IV is automatically equivalent to ASD Level 1 in the DSM 5) but the genesis of the stereotype goes back to Asperger himself.

I remember him being on Coast-to-Coast AM. He never seemed to nail down his reason for the explosion of Autism diagnosis in the western world, but if I was following his reasoning correctly, Autism and AS were being "discovered" during the rise of the Nazi regime, and somehow that affected how things were "labeled." As the treatment for autistic people after that point was nothing short of barbaric, it's not surprising that a lot of autism cases went "undiagnosed" in an effort to spare the patient (and family) from the negative effects of being declared "autistic."

Hence, now that there isn't a stigma, more cases are readily diagnosed than were in prior generations.

there is still a lot of hate and oppression going on. just mentioning that you are on the autism spectrum can get you a lot of disrespect in some communities.