History of Asperger Syndrome - Relationship To Kanner's Work

Relationship To Kanner's Work

Two subtypes of autism were described between 1943 and 1944 by two Austrian researchers working independently—Asperger and Austrian-born child psychiatrist Leo Kanner (1894–1981). Kanner emigrated to the United States in 1924; he described a similar syndrome in 1943, known as "classic autism" or "Kannerian autism", characterized by significant cognitive and communicative deficiencies, including delayed or absent language development. Kanner's descriptions were influenced by the developmental approach of Arnold Gesell, while Asperger was influenced by accounts of schizophrenia and personality disorders. Asperger's frame of reference was Eugen Bleuler's typology, which Christopher Gillberg has described as "out of keeping with current diagnostic manuals", adding that Asperger's descriptions are "penetrating but not sufficiently systematic". Asperger was unaware of Kanner's description published a year before his; the two researchers were separated by an ocean and a raging war, and Asperger's descriptions were ignored in the United States. During his lifetime, Asperger's work, in German, remained largely unknown outside the German-speaking world.