History of Asperger Syndrome - Discovery of Autistic Psychopathy

Discovery of Autistic Psychopathy

Asperger was the director of the University Children's Clinic in Vienna, spending most of his professional life in Vienna and publishing largely in German. As a child, Asperger appeared to have exhibited some features of the very condition named after him, such as social remoteness and talent in language; photographs taken during his seminal work show that he had a frank and earnest face with an intense gaze. In 1944, Asperger described in the paper "'Autistic psychopathy' in childhood" four children in his practice who had difficulty in integrating themselves socially. Although their intelligence appeared normal, the children lacked nonverbal communication skills, failed to demonstrate empathy with their peers, and were physically clumsy. Their speaking was either disjointed or overly formal, and their all-absorbing interest in a single topic dominated their conversations. Asperger called the condition "autistic psychopathy" and described it as primarily marked by social isolation. Asperger called his young patients "little professors", and believed the individuals he described would be capable of exceptional achievement and original thought later in life. In a society governed by the Nazi eugenics policy of sterilizing and killing social deviants and the mentally handicapped, Asperger's paper passionately defended the value of autistic individuals, writing "We are convinced, then, that autistic people have their place in the organism of the social community. They fulfil their role well, perhaps better than anyone else could, and we are talking of people who as children had the greatest difficulties and caused untold worries to their care-givers."