Summary of Autistic Psychopathy

Post Reply New Topic

Yeah, "Autistic psychopathy in childhood" by Hans Asperger.

You'll also not the stereotypical Kanner's motor mannerisms listed too.

You have to use a little caution with the work that Hans did as some of it was 'wishfull' thinking on his part which is a trap that many scientists seem prone to fall into. Also keep in mind that these were his 'impressions' of the exhibited bahaviors of the children and then his 'interpretations' of that behavior.

I think that Sula Wolff thinks that most Hans Asperger's subjects were more close to the Cluster A Personality Disorders than to the "modern" AS.

The autist is only himself, ...

... and not an active member of a greater organism which he is influenced by and which he influences constantly.

I don't know where she gets that from (if she does), as reading Asperger's paper shows the same disorder as Kanner describes; the main difference being that Kanner had four nonverbal children [out of twelve], whereas all of Asperger's were verbal. Asperger also notes that the presence of, or greater the mental retardation, the more "autistic" someone is (this thinking hasn't changed in institutes).

We realised from the start that our children resembled
Asperger’s cases (Wolff and Chick, 1980). He stressed the
children’s giftedness, the association with maliciousness and
unusual fantasy. He reported the social disability to decrease in
adulthood when, despite continuing difficulties in intimate
relationships, work adjustment was often excellent. This
contrasts with more recent accounts of people with Asperger
syndrome (Tantam, 1988a and b; Tantam, 1991; and Wing,
1992), who were rarely able to lead independent lives or
maintain employment, and hardly ever married. Most of
Tantam’s patients had the triad of impairments typical of
autism in early childhood, although not always beginning
under the age of three, and most also scored highly on a
measure for schizoid/schizotypal personality. This was thought
to be secondary to the developmental disorder.

(...)

In summary, the children we described could be
classified either as having a schizoid/schizotypal personality
disorder whose diagnostic criteria they fulfil, or as having
Asperger’s autistic psychopathy according to Asperger’s
original description. The current diagnostic category of
Asperger syndrome is inappropriate unless its criteria both in
DSM-IV and ICD-10 are modified to omit the exclusion of
significant delays in speech and language and of schizoid and
schizotypal disorders; to specify the less severe social
impairments and more sophisticated all-absorbing interests in
comparison with autism; and to include a criterion for unusual
fantasy.