Published on 12, July, 2020
I have Asperger’s syndrome. Why do they class Asperger’s and autism as the same now when they are so different from each other? I mean Asperger’s is a genetic condition which affects the way someone thinks and makes them slightly different and socially awkward and more anxious. Autism on the other hand in the classic sense is a debilitating condition characterised by the inability to speak and vocalise words, intellectual disability and aggression with violent outbursts. Why do people with Asperger’s dominate the perception of autism. Everybody seems to forget about these kids who cannot talk at all. People view people like us people with Asperger’s as what autism is. This is not the case classic autism as it used to be defined was basically someone who regressed around the ages 2-4 into losing all speech and ability to function. It seemed to start around the 50s to 60s. Whereas Asperger’s has been around for maybe thousands of years. There is cases documented of people who may have had Asperger’s way before the 50s. A woman in Russia in the early 1900’s at the beginning of that decade worked with under a dozen kids who would have been declared as autism highly functioning or Asperger’s syndrome nowadays. These kids were quiet and inhibited but showed great ability to work machines and understand mechanisms of things and patterns. However it appears that people who have Asperger’s are born with it and always have it. They may take a while to develop language but they never develop it and lose it forever the same way someone with classic autism does. I have known people who had one child who lost the ability to speak and function about 2-4 years old and never spoke again and had to be put in a care home. But none of the boys other siblings had this happen to them. So how do you explain this sudden regression in some people that doesn’t happen with every other kid in that same family. Something must be causing a sudden regression especially if it’s only in a specific family member and no others. Asperger’s on the other hand is genetic and if one family member has it they all are almost garuanteed to have it more or less. If anyone has any thoughts on this please do share them as I would like to make more sense of this.
I believe it’s because of the nazi party and world war 2 a guy who discovered autism was a cruel nazi his last name was asparagus which I believe to be German for autism or something. Well he experimented on kids and apparently asparagus is now offensive to diagnose I believe that’s the reason but i could be wrong but I know it’s to do with ww2 and the *** hope this helps
Rach91 said: a guy who discovered autism was a cruel nazi his last name was asparagus which I believe to be German for autism or something.
The guy was Hans Asperger - he gained his position in the paedatrtic department in 1931 following the purge of jewish doctors and grew to be department head there in Vienna, Austria.
The hospital seems to have been strongly influenced by the Nazi party and Hans used this to facilitate all sorts of research into areas of personal interest using the anti-jewish policy to facilitate the approvals for what would otherwise have been dubious research.
He began identifying the symptoms that cover much of what is not called autism towards the end of the war and this ended up with his name on the condition he spotted.
He was clearly an opportunist and of dubious moral fibre by todays standards.
en.wikipedia.org/.../Hans_Asperger
I always thought it was because of him Asperger was no longer used. I was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome but no I just say high functioning autism. The camp I worked at in America last year was a camp for children with autism they didn’t like the term Asperger. But there was one kid there who was 8 years old and was on the spectrum but was extremely high functioning. Did everything themselves could have a conversation with but you could tell that this kid was on the spectrum because of certain behaviours. But really the question is is Asperger’s such a bad word? I don’t think so and I’m not afraid to say I have it either.
Good point Rach91 it’s what the word means to you that matters. It’s how it makes you feel. If you want to use it please do at least I won’t judge you for using it despite the past. Of course if we assume that Hans Asperger was a bad man then yes that’s appalling and wrong what he did. But still the word itself is different depending on what it means personally for you.