Not until the middle of the twentieth century was there a name for a disorder that now affects many children all around the globe. A disorder that causes disruption in families and unfulfilled lives for many children.

The Swiss psychiatrist Eugene Bleuler used the word “autism”  in a 1912 issue of the American Journal of Insanity. It comes from the Greek word for “self,” (autos). Bleuler used it to describe the schizophrenic’s obvious difficulty in connecting with other people. They used the term to describe individuals displaying the autistic tendency to isolate themselves from personal interaction. They did not specifically define the condition itself however until the 1940s. Leo Kanner was the first doctor in the United States who was identified as a child psychiatrist. His first textbook, Child Psychiatry (1935), was the first English language textbook to focus on the psychiatric problems of children. His seminal 1943 paper “Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact”, and the work of Hans Asperger, forms the basis of the modern study of autism. In 1943 Dr. Leo Kanner of the Johns Hopkins Hospital meticulously studied a group of 11 children. He introduced the label ‘early infantile autism’ into the English language. He suggested the term “autism” to describe the fact the children lack interest in other people. Kanner’s first paper on the subject was published in The Nervous Child, a now defunct journal. People still regard every characteristic he originally described as typical of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).

At the same time a German scientist, Dr. Hans Asperger, made similar observation. He described a milder form of the developmental disorder that became known as ‘Asperger Syndrome.’ Interestingly, as a child, Hans Asperger appeared to have displayed features of the condition named after him. People described him as a remote and lonely child, who had difficulty making friends. He had talent for language; he was interested in the Austrian poet Franz Grillparzer whose poetry he would often quote to his uninterested classmates.

Asperger died before his work became widely recognized because his work was mostly in German and little-translated. It was only in the 1990s when Asperger Syndrome gained international acceptance. The first person to use the term “Asperger Syndrome” in a paper was British researcher Lorna Wing. Because she had an autistic daughter, she became involved in researching developmental disorders, particularly Autism Spectrum Disorders. She published her paper, “Asperger Syndrome:  A Clinical Account”, in 1981 and challenged the previously accepted model of autism presented by Leo Kanner in 1943. The paper popularized the research of Hans Asperger and introduced the term “Asperger Syndrome”. 

Hans Asperger lived in Vienna where he worked as a pediatric doctor at the University Children’s Hospital. Dr. Asperger worked with four test subjects who showed similar symptomatic psychopathic behavior. He noted that they had a clear unwillingness to interact with others and befriend peers, suffered from an inadequate ability to empathize with others, was clumsier than other children their age, yet excelled academically in subjects that captured their interest.

Hans Asperger’s optimism apart from his contemporararies dealing with autism . While his colleagues had only had bleak hopes for people diagnosed with the condition in childhood, Dr. Asperger considered the children uniquely able to put their special interest or talent to good use. He referred to them repeatedly as his “little professors”.  At the time when institutionalization was the recommended intervention, Dr. Asperger opened the first school for autistic children. Sadly, his early efforts were lost when the school and much of his written research burned during a bombing raid toward the end of Word War II.

Some suggest the hospital was to help children who might have displayed the same latent form of the disease which researchers now believe may have plagued him as a child. Although functioning highly, he might very well measure on the autism scale himself, based on some early records that describe him as a withdrawn child with an early fondness for language. Success of his theories and recognition of his findings occurred posthumously in 1981 when they translated his writings. They served another researcher to take on Leo Kanner and his rather negative slant on autism and the outlooks for individuals suffering from any form of the disorder.  Now called the Asperger Syndrome, it is internationally recognized as standing for a high-functioning form of autism.  Asperger’s Syndrome is a diagnosis that sets a child on the path to getting the specialized help needed to enable her or him to lead a full and happy life. The differences Dr. Asperger made in these lives when the individuals were still children are most likely contributory to their later adult success.