Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi There,
I am autistic and have an interest in the history of autism. I often wonder if autism has been around for hundreds of years but people never thought much of it back then. I think people back in the day would just look at us and think “oh he’s just quiet” or “oh she’s a bit shy but has a heart of gold” that kind of thing. I mean I never would have guessed I was autistic I really don’t feel disabled I just feel like a normal person who’s got a different mind.
is there anyone here from say the 40’s 50’s or 60’s that would like to share what being an autistic child was like back then when nobody knew what autism was? It must have been difficult feeling different but not knowing why.
My Granny's recently been diagnosed.
She was born in 1934 and she spent a lot of childhood getting in trouble for being a problem child cause her parents didn't understand.
But after mine and my sister's diagnosis she also got assessed and now she's just been diagnosed.
She feels so happy and positive about it and says she's glad to finally know.
At one point when she was little they were talking about institutionalising her to "cure" her.
So sad how close minded people were back then.
Nice to meet you by the way! I'm Violet
Living as an autistic person through the 2nd world war must have been a traumatic experience . I’m glad she finally got the answer she needed. Wow it’s crazy looking back with hindsight as there would have been no point institutionalising her as they wouldn’t have been able to cure it anyway especially since they didn’t even know what it was they were dealing with.
Yellow tree 118 said:there would have been no point institutionalising her as they wouldn’t have been able to cure it anyway especially since they didn’t even know what it was they were dealing with
The purpose of institutionalisation back then was as much to get the troublesome person out of society where they were a drain on often meagre resources (ie they couldn't hold down a job) or were a menace to themselves and others.
Cures were pretty limited due to lack of knowledge so many interesting techniques were thought up by ill informed professionals, leaving to attempts to drain the blood to get the evil spirits out of you, or electro shock to try to get the electricity in your brain working normally etc.
If you have seen the TV series Queen Charlotte recently on Netflix, this shows the lengths they went to try to "cure" the king at that time - really shocking by todays standards, but experimental with few ethics back then.
Yeh it’s crazy looking back on it but also interesting, I was walking past what used to be an old asylum a year or 2 ago and you can still see the remenants of the old tall pointed metal fencing surrounding the outer perimeter of the old asylum building. It’s all rusted now and some bits of it are missing but still it sort of takes you back to that time just being there.