Perhaps it's fair to say that 'Asperger's Syndrome' can be contrasted with 'Kanner's Syndrome'. The latter is not as well-known because it tends to be equated with the term 'classic autism'. As, if I've got my history of autism right, Leo Kanner presented his findings earlier than did Hans Asperger and thus 'autism' can be understood as the type of presentation that Kanner revealed.
But 'ASD', as 'Autistic Spectrum Disorder', has always covered both Kanner's and Asperger's, as far as I know. Just with the added confusion over Asperger's, as being more or less synonymous with 'high-functioning autism', thus paralleling Kanner's as 'low-functioning'. Aside from the political correctness of drawing attention away from the environment in which Herr Asperger carried out his research, the awkward implications of 'high-' and 'low-' functioning autism seem to oversimplify the nature of autism as a 'spectrum disorder/condition'.
I found it useful to compare with the less well-known SSD, 'schizophrenic spectrum disorder', with schizophrenia being one of several differential diagnoses amongst other '***-' prefixed conditions, personality types and mood disorders. I find the contrast with schizophrenia (and related conditions) to be of particular interest as 'autism', as we know it today, has its roots in what, a century ago, would have been considered an aspect of schizophrenia. Strange now, as we consider autism and schizophrenia to be very different phenomena but 'schizophrenia' seems to have been the 'bigger tent' terminology which autism emerged from within psychiatry and now 'autism' has become the 'big tent' as a spectrum condition with a vast range of manifestations, depending on individual circumstances and the variety of presentations.
Yet both schizophrenia and autism are related today under the even broader canopy of 'neurodiversity', which I find quite useful as my own learning journey into both conditions has emerged.
Perhaps it's fair to say that 'Asperger's Syndrome' can be contrasted with 'Kanner's Syndrome'. The latter is not as well-known because it tends to be equated with the term 'classic autism'. As, if I've got my history of autism right, Leo Kanner presented his findings earlier than did Hans Asperger and thus 'autism' can be understood as the type of presentation that Kanner revealed.
But 'ASD', as 'Autistic Spectrum Disorder', has always covered both Kanner's and Asperger's, as far as I know. Just with the added confusion over Asperger's, as being more or less synonymous with 'high-functioning autism', thus paralleling Kanner's as 'low-functioning'. Aside from the political correctness of drawing attention away from the environment in which Herr Asperger carried out his research, the awkward implications of 'high-' and 'low-' functioning autism seem to oversimplify the nature of autism as a 'spectrum disorder/condition'.
I found it useful to compare with the less well-known SSD, 'schizophrenic spectrum disorder', with schizophrenia being one of several differential diagnoses amongst other '***-' prefixed conditions, personality types and mood disorders. I find the contrast with schizophrenia (and related conditions) to be of particular interest as 'autism', as we know it today, has its roots in what, a century ago, would have been considered an aspect of schizophrenia. Strange now, as we consider autism and schizophrenia to be very different phenomena but 'schizophrenia' seems to have been the 'bigger tent' terminology which autism emerged from within psychiatry and now 'autism' has become the 'big tent' as a spectrum condition with a vast range of manifestations, depending on individual circumstances and the variety of presentations.
Yet both schizophrenia and autism are related today under the even broader canopy of 'neurodiversity', which I find quite useful as my own learning journey into both conditions has emerged.
