Asperger's and Chronology

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How far back does Asperger's really date? Has it "always been" or is it a relatively new anomoly?
I ask because there seem to be a multitude of "syndromes" popping up and I have to wonder if they are new, or has the human physiology changed dramatically in the past 50-ish years, or if it's simply a new name to an old issue.

Organized groups of any kind have a tremendous need to cubby hole everything so it can be better controled and as these groups expand in complexity they have more and more need to catagorize and typify almost everything in sight and autism one day came under the microscope and got a label.
I imagine that it was just as common a hundred years ago as it is today but nobody needed to 'control' it back then.

Aspergers was first recognised in 1990, but individuals in older age groups tend do be misdiagnosed or ignored. Since then, increased diagnostic rate is probably due to increased awareness.

Autism has been described pretty far back. I think maybe the middle ages, or earlier? Greece, maybe? Anyways, yeah; we didn't have a name for it back then, but it definitely existed. Mild Asperger's might have been seen as a variation on "normal"; which is probably hard on the Middle Ages Aspie who was presumed to be rude or odd. But then again, being obviously autistic enough might've got you burned as a witch back then, so being seen as odd was probably a better alternative. Autistic children might not have survived childhood as easily, though, due to the high rate of seizures--back then they thought epilepsy meant inevitable brain damage (it does, if it's severe and untreated, but today usually not); so they would have thought that the first time an autistic child had a seizure, he must obviously be damaged... resulting in the usual abuses against people presumed to be mentally ret*d or insane. We have it a lot better now, despite the ABA and biomed quackery... at least they usually let us live!

What we call Apergers was first recognized in 1944.

What about the Witches or the ancient savants?

It is not much clear if the thing that today is called "asperger's syndrome" is the same thing that Hans Asperger called "autistic psychopathy" in 1944 (some people argue that modern AS is a more severe and impairing condition that Hans Asperger's AP)

It's probably been around since ancient times. Psychology as a modern science only dates back to the 19th Century, but it probably goes back longer than that.

I'm in my 50s (well, early), but I see some of it in my Dad (80s)

First existed, who knows when?

First defined in 1944. It WAS then recognized.

First known in the U.S. apparently around 1981, IIRC.

First described in the DSM as a syndrome 1994, IIRC.

Sadly, it seems that nobody really knows what they are doing. WHY have meetings, and write a book, such as the DSM, if you can't explain things in less subjective terms? And PLEASE, DON'T give me the HOGWASH about how you have to have a degree, because there are LOTS of people out there with degrees, INCLUDING supposed EXPERTS in AS that don't agree with one another, let alone everyone else. Besides, they are supposed to understand psychology. The DSM looks more like it is written by lawyers, that often write broad terms and use convoluted logic.

Want examples?

D. There is no clinically significant general delay in language (e.g., single words used by age 2 years, communicative phrases used by age 3 years).

So HOW COME some "professionals" say you MUST have a delay, or by 4yo is ok? I spoke by 10m.

B(1) encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus

Most examples are not really stereotyped, and not restricted. And what is really abnormal? My interests have been things like electronics. I learned electronics and read schematics when most my age were still trying to learn to read english. It DID take a lot of my time, etc... I was literally tracing circuits and figuring out osscilators, etc... when others were using the slide!

C. The disturbance causes clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

Again, vague. For me, I have to keep my mouth shut a LOT, etc... and I can STILL get in some trouble at work. Luckily, nobody fires me, etc... I have trouble making/keeping friends, am not married, etc... I generally CAN'T haggle.

E. There is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or in the development of age-appropriate self-help skills, adaptive behavior (other than in social interaction), and curiosity about the environment in childhood.

So how come some say you HAVE to have horrible self help skills, etc?

I can look at people here, descriptions, etc... and determine there is a HIGH likelyhood that I fit the diagnosis. The DSM is vague though. Even a few examples would help.

Last edited by 2ukenkerl on 07 Jan 2009, 10:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Good point. I'm sure a lot of people who were burned as witches were actually just AS. I also imagine that in some cultures, spectrum people would have been valued as having some kind of connection to the spirit world or something like that, and been the shamans and that kind of thing.

Well, there IS the bit about shaking, dressing funny, acting wierd, not following normal conventions, and reading things backwards.

The witch burnings were mostly due to the madness brought on by the plague.
Having said that, how far back do crazy cat ladies and religious hermits go???
How about the Court Jesters in the Middle Ages???
Or those craftsmen who spent every waking hour making better metals to craft swords out of?
I saw one programme where a bloke re-created a Viking ship and remarked on how expert the craftsmen had to be to build one.

i agree. i would undoubtedly have been drowned or burned at the stake during one of the many inquisitions.
i believe it has always existed, but just not categorized as such.
how many autistics resided in benthamite prisons? how many were on the ship of fools?
i would hazard a guess at a fair few.....
foucault writes a bit on post-enlightenment modernity and the need for classifications of "diseases of the mind." don't agree with everything he says, but interesting nonetheless.

The condition is probably as old as the human race. It happened to have received a name in 1944. I am sure among our cro-mag ancestors there were "weird" guys who likes to spend time in the caves painting animal figures. Perhaps it was an obsession. Or other "weird" guys who obsessed over making fancy flint arrowheads. These "weird" guys were instrumental to the technological progress of the human race. I am sure their "more normal" tribesmen figured that they were doing useful stuff and did not bother them.

It was the "weirdos" that moved out species forward.

ruveyn

Also consider the first navigators, astonomers. Had to an AS in somebody along the line to focus in on something long enough to find out about it all.

I agree: for example: a kid that spend most of his time reading books about animal life has a "stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest", or he only has a "stereotyped and... interest" if he spends most of his time reading about the reprodutive cycle of aphids?.

And a "normal" kid obsessed with playing soccer? What is the big difference between this and the "stereotyped and... interest" of the Aspies?



Yes. And how we combine the "E. There is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or in the development of age-appropriate self-help skills, adaptive behavior (other than in social interaction), and curiosity about the environment in childhood" with the "Asperger's Disorder must be distinguished from normal social awkwardness and normal age-appropriate interests and hobbies. In Asperger's Disorder, the social deficits are quite severe and the preoccupations are all-encompassing and interfere with the acquisition of basic skills"?