Skip to main content
Close Button
Donate
  • Replies 22 replies
  • Subscribers 46 subscribers
  • Views 8721 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Is the NAS phasing out AS?

Arran
over 5 years ago

Asperger United was renamed The Spectrum by the NAS as a result of the findings about the life and work of Hans Asperger by Herwig Czech earlier in 2018.

https://www.autism.org.uk/get-involved/media-centre/news/2018-04-19-study-on-hans-asperger.aspx

www.autism.org.uk/.../the-spectrum.aspx

Is this an indication that the NAS is (quietly?) phasing out Asperger from their website and publications?

The services that the NAS has provided for people with AS have been the point of much contention over the years. This has included criticism that the NAS focuses the majority of its efforts onto people at the more severe end of the autism spectrum or those who require residential care services whereas people with AS only get the crumbs. Therefore the NAS could take advantage of the findings of Herwig Czech as a backdoor way to abandon supporting people with AS and effectively turn the clock back to the 1980s when people with (then undiagnosed) AS would almost always fail to meet the criteria for autism.

Some people argue that AS should be phased out anyway because it is no longer included in DSM-5 but DSM-5 is American and it has been rather cynically referred to as a catalogue of billing codes for insurance companies rather than a list of medical conditions.

Parents
  • over 1 year ago

    Hi Arran, 
    you're right re the DSM-5. It has come under critique from academia, as well as Neurodiversity supporters.  I have (a UK citizen), an official diagnosis of ASC: identifying AS as 'condition', not a 'disorder'. 
    Edith's Sheffer's promotion of 'Hans the evil' on the YouTube 'Google Talk' is given a populist framing.  A friend with an English degree, commented (on this video) that if had Sheffer used Schindler (as in 'Schindler's List') as a comparative point in her classroom debates, she would have not survived two minutes. 

    Herwig and Scheffer's presentations have only added more divisive debate in the AS community.  This is a concern, as a  further division of voice.  This can only benefits those who want for the medicalisation of AS and the viewpoint that AS is something that needs to be corrected.  Silberman's presentation of Han's Asperger runs counter to this.  This is a battle for popular narrative beyond interpretation of historic record. It would be all to easy to loose the valuable perspective that Han's Asperger brought.

    Sheffer's call for Asperger's Syndrome to be rename (as she suggest) 'Wing Syndrome', is an curious one.  What is the value to Autism with that?  If any renaming was call for, why not      Sukhareva-Asperger condition (for debate sake)? Sukhareva, was female and pre-dated Asperger. Seems more appropriate, as she was here conclusion and approach to Autism before it very similar to Asperger, as in ameliorate the areas of difficulties, and support and develop personal strengths.  


Reply
  • over 1 year ago

    Hi Arran, 
    you're right re the DSM-5. It has come under critique from academia, as well as Neurodiversity supporters.  I have (a UK citizen), an official diagnosis of ASC: identifying AS as 'condition', not a 'disorder'. 
    Edith's Sheffer's promotion of 'Hans the evil' on the YouTube 'Google Talk' is given a populist framing.  A friend with an English degree, commented (on this video) that if had Sheffer used Schindler (as in 'Schindler's List') as a comparative point in her classroom debates, she would have not survived two minutes. 

    Herwig and Scheffer's presentations have only added more divisive debate in the AS community.  This is a concern, as a  further division of voice.  This can only benefits those who want for the medicalisation of AS and the viewpoint that AS is something that needs to be corrected.  Silberman's presentation of Han's Asperger runs counter to this.  This is a battle for popular narrative beyond interpretation of historic record. It would be all to easy to loose the valuable perspective that Han's Asperger brought.

    Sheffer's call for Asperger's Syndrome to be rename (as she suggest) 'Wing Syndrome', is an curious one.  What is the value to Autism with that?  If any renaming was call for, why not      Sukhareva-Asperger condition (for debate sake)? Sukhareva, was female and pre-dated Asperger. Seems more appropriate, as she was here conclusion and approach to Autism before it very similar to Asperger, as in ameliorate the areas of difficulties, and support and develop personal strengths.  


Children
No Data