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Hans Asperger

Senor

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/19/hans-asperger-aided-and-supported-nazi-programme-study-says

I have to say that since I first read Steve Silbermann's book 'Neurotribes' about a year plus ago, I have been wondering if it was entirely the case that Asperger tried to keep his subjects away from the Nazi euthanasia programme. This morning's headline is thus no great surprise. And as Sachs-Cohen and Silbermann have already indicated their belief in the emerging facts, I'm not about to get too emotive about it. Regardless of DSM-5, my diagnostician decided it was still a valid term for an older adult who had lived for some years with some knowledge of that label. And I'm not about to avoid that label, myself. I suppose I might as well be the first person on the forum to ask what happens next, because I would guess that not everyone will be quite so philosophical about it as me. I have to admit, I have never really taken very kindly to 'aspie'. I find it a bit patronising; but I'm now wondering if some of that discomfort is down to the fact that I have sort of half expected that the hero thing was not quite the full story. And Kanner, for all his input, wasn't beyond criticism either.

''Carol Povey, director at the National Autistic Society in the UK’s Centre for Autism, said: “We expect these findings to spark a big conversation among autistic people and their family members, particularly those who identify with the term ‘Asperger’. Obviously no one with a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome should feel in any way tainted by this very troubling history.” 

Parents

  • I remember reading about the euthanasia of children deemed genetically inferior in the 80's, when I was involved in a crummy independent bookshop. I remember thinking that had I been that much more in difficulties as a child, that might have been my fate.

    But they were dangerous times. It does not sound as though Asperger's hands were totally free of blood though. 

    I agree with other observations along the lines of - how do we know we would not do the same during times such as those? What if things end up swinging towards something similar in the future.

    There was an experiment called the Milgram experiment carried out a whhle ago. Seems that most people, when put under pressure from an authority, were willing to push a button said to administer massive electric shocks to another subject. Way too many people caved in and kept on pushing that button at higher and higher voltages, I fear.....

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  • I remember reading about the euthanasia of children deemed genetically inferior in the 80's, when I was involved in a crummy independent bookshop. I remember thinking that had I been that much more in difficulties as a child, that might have been my fate.

    But they were dangerous times. It does not sound as though Asperger's hands were totally free of blood though. 

    I agree with other observations along the lines of - how do we know we would not do the same during times such as those? What if things end up swinging towards something similar in the future.

    There was an experiment called the Milgram experiment carried out a whhle ago. Seems that most people, when put under pressure from an authority, were willing to push a button said to administer massive electric shocks to another subject. Way too many people caved in and kept on pushing that button at higher and higher voltages, I fear.....

Children
  • in reply to nexus9

    I think the Milgram experiment participants 'inflicted torture' for the opposite reasons to the people trapped in Nazi Germany. In the Milgram scenario, people most likely believed that a reputable university wouldn't actually torture people and certainly wouldn't kill study participants so they would have felt safe going along with things even when they seemed wrong - trusting that things couldn't actually be as they seemed.

    In contrast, those trapped in Nazi Germany soon realised that the Nazi's held to no such ethical considerations and so they had no choice but to at least be seen to co-operate or face death themselves.