1938,1943

Autism

• Hans Asperger used the terms autistic psychopathy
• 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.