to describe children who were socially isolated, physically clumsy,
and lacked nonverbal communication skills and empathy toward others.
Leo Kanner used the terms early infantile autism
to describe intelligent children who fiercely wanted to be alone
and had “an obsessive insistence on persistent sameness.”
A range of abnormal behavioral symptoms, from mild to severe,
affect people who may not have autism but have autistic-like traits
to people who are unable to cope in our crowded and disorderly world.
Concern for others
Dr. Leo Kanner, the father of child psychiatry,
had concern for mentally ill people
who were taken into homes as servants,
and for the wellbeing of mentally disabled children.
He and his wife helped many Jewish physicians
who were threatened by the Nazis
to get jobs in the United States.
Disorder or difference
Is it early-onset Alzheimer’s,
or am I merely forgetful, as usual?
My joints are creaky in the morning;
am I getting arthritis?
Sometimes I want only to be alone.
Later I think what I wish I had told people.
Why is everything always changing?
The range of normality is wide
but it could be wider.
Differences between individuals often exceed
differences between groups.
Some people seem to be blessed with the ignorance
of not knowing how strange they really are.
If our ability to see similarities
were as keen as our ability to see differences,
then I think we would all be happier.
Some people seem to be blessed with the ignorance of not knowing how strange they really are. If our ability to see similarities were as keen as our ability to see differences, then I think we would all be happier.
See also in The book of science:
Readings in wikipedia: