Published on 12, July, 2020
So I really feel that the term Asperger's, although dropped for valid reasons, served a very real function within the community.
I of course understand why the grouping exists. But from a social stigma pov, I find it limiting to consider myself, who is fortunate to be a very adept and able high-functioning person, in the same category of autism as those who sadly are much less well functioning.
I'm sure it won't be popular to say it, but I feel I would certainly benefit from being considered an Aspie instead.
I'm interested to here why other people think about this?
I'm currently waiting on my assessment but I'm what would be considered Asperger's or high functioning. Personally, I would never want to be associated with a man that initially labelled a group of children with distinct psychological characteristics like mine as ‘autistic psychopaths’.
Further, taken from another page:
"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. The language he employed to diagnose his patients was often remarkably harsh (even in comparison with assessments written by the staff at Vienna’s notorious Spiegelgrund ‘euthanasia’ institution), belying the notion that he tried to protect the children under his care by embellishing their diagnoses."
https://molecularautism.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13229-018-0208-6
No, never call me Asperger's, I'm autistic, level 1, high functioning, whatever, but not Asperger's.