Should we ditch Hans Asperger's label?

I've never liked the whole "Asperger" label, because it lends itself to a series of horrible puns (and is unfair to children in that way).

I presume this has been discussed on here, but Dr Hans Asperger is not the kind of man we should be celebrating. This is off Wikipedia - I apologise for using that source, but it is the quickest to cut and paste

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Edith Scheffer, a modern European history scholar, wrote in 2018 that Asperger cooperated with the Nazi regime, including sending children to the Spiegelgrund clinic which participated in the euthanasia program.[26] Scheffer wrote a book further elaborating on her research called Asperger's Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna (2018).[27][28]

Another scholar and historian from the Medical University of Vienna, Herwig Czech concluded in a 2017 article in the journal Molecular Autism, which was published in April 2018:

Asperger managed to accommodate himself to the Nazi regime and was rewarded for his affirmations of loyalty with career opportunities. He joined several organizations affiliated with the NSDAP (although not the Nazi party itself), publicly legitimized race hygiene policies including forced sterilizations and, on several occasions, actively cooperated with the child ‘euthanasia' program.[29]

Dean Falk, American anthropologist from Florida State University, questioned Herwig Czech's allegations against Hans Asperger in two papers in Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.[30][31] Czech's reply was published in the same journal.[32]

In May 2019, Ketil Slagstad, a Norwegian doctor and historical scholar, added his interpretation of both Scheffer's and Czech's work, in his article "Asperger, the [National Socialists] and the children - the history of the birth of a diagnosis",[33] in which he describes the nuances of the situation. He offers an alternative explanation of Asperger's involvement, citing the challenges of war, desire to protect his career and protect the children for which he cared, Slagstad concludes:

The story of Hans Asperger, Nazism, murdered children, post-war oblivion, the birth of the diagnosis in the 1980s, the gradual expansion of the diagnostic criteria and the huge recent interest in autism spectrum disorders exemplify the historical and volatile nature of diagnoses: they are historic constructs that reflect the times and societies where they exert their effect.

Critically, though, Slagstad noted "Historical research has now shown that he [Asperger] was...a well-adapted cog in the machine of a deadly regime. He deliberately referred disabled children to the clinic Am Spiegelgrund, where he knew that they were at risk of being killed. The eponym Asperger’s syndrome ought to be used with awareness of its historical origin."[34]

Parents
  • Re-labelling for political correctness,.   Pathetic.    Why do we have to pander to such weak-minded people who need to be shielded from reality and history?

    I have Asperger's..

    I have a REAL problem with the labelling of the 'Common' Cold - I think it should be re-named in case it offends someone who is working class..

Reply
  • Re-labelling for political correctness,.   Pathetic.    Why do we have to pander to such weak-minded people who need to be shielded from reality and history?

    I have Asperger's..

    I have a REAL problem with the labelling of the 'Common' Cold - I think it should be re-named in case it offends someone who is working class..

Children
  •  The name autism had common currency before Aspergers crept in about twenty years ago. Would we tolerate people having a Mengele Syndrome named after a famous doctor or should Stalingrad have retained its name?

    If you want to talk about political correctness - look up the Jewish doctor that Asperger plagiarised from, but never credited, because that wouldn't have gone down well with the politicos of the time.

  • I must admit that although I do not like the label I still use it for convenience although I might not be Autistic at all.  I think I am brain damaged rather than Autistic.   A Canadian Psychologist who tested me for the late Professor Feuerstine in 1983 in Jerusalem E Mailed me recently from Toronto saying that he is surprised that I was labelled Asperger and he knew that I had a Non Verbal Learning Disability on the Right Side of my Brain.  Yes professionals have told me that I have Asperger and a Psychiatrist who visited us in 1976 said I was mildly Autistic when I was nineteen.  A  Psychiatrist when I was nine in 1966 wrongly wanted to send me to an Autistic School  I fell out of a pram when I was a baby and I had a difficult birth.  I have bad perception and find it hard to learn foreign languages although both my parents were good at foreign languages.  It is true that I have some social skills problems but this can also be accounted for by brain damage.  I am sure that there are others wrongly labelled with Autism who  have another disability.  The advantage of these Autistic labels is that it makes it simpler to explain and it gets us together.  I do not think there are any groups for people with Non Verbal Learning Disability.