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Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

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01-07-2015 | Letter to the Editor

Did Kanner Actually Describe the First Account of Autism? The Mystery of 1938

Auteur: Sam Fellowes

Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders | Uitgave 7/2015

Abstract

Kanner opens his pioneering 1943 paper on autism by making a mysterious mention of the year 1938. Recent letters to the editor of this journal have disagreed over a particular interpretation—does 1938 refer to an early paper by Asperger, effectively meaning Kanner plagiarised Asperger? I argue 1938 refers to a paper by Louise Despert. This was not plagiarism but a case of building on Despert’s ideas. Additionally, I suggest his motives for not mentioning her by name were not dishonourable.

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volgende artikel Shifting Diagnostic Systems for Defining Intellectual Disability in Death Penalty Cases: Hall vs. Florida

Fitzgerald, in personal communication with Feinstein, is quoted as saying Kanner “plagiarized” (Feinstein 2010, p. 11) Asperger.

For example, Kanner considers as fundamental desire for unchanging environments, behaviour Asperger (1991) only mentions through descriptions of other symptoms. Kanner say autistic children have normal intelligence whereas Asperger says autism can occur at any intelligence level. Kanner believes interaction with the physical world is normal whereas Asperger describes poor co-ordination.

This articles describes a 32 year old female adult, first seen by psychiatrists in 1920 at three years of age. Based upon case records made in 1920 and 1921, Darr and Worden (1951) and Kanner (in Darr and Worden 1951) all consider her autistic. This makes her one of the earliest clinical description of a child we can retrospectively consider autistic.

Many psychology journals during this period were not stringent over referencing. Kanner's article was not particularly exceptional in this regard.

Asperger, Hans. (1991). ‘Autistic psychopathy’ in childhood. In Uta Frith (Ed.), Autism and Asperger syndrome (pp. 37–93). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRef

Bradley, Charles. (1941). Schizophrenia in childhood. New York: The Macmillian Company.

Chown, Nick. (2012). ‘History and First Descriptions’ of Autism: A response to Michael Fitzgerald. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42(10), 2263–2265.PubMedCrossRef

Darr, G. C., & Worden, F. G. (1951). Case report twenty eight years after an infantile autistic disorder. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 21(3), 559–570.PubMedCrossRef

Despert, J. L. (1938). Schizophrenia in children. Psychiatric Quarterly, 12(2), 366–371.CrossRef

Despert, J. L. (1952). Some considerations relating to the genesis of autistic behaviour in children. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 21(2), 335–350.CrossRef

Despert, J. L. (Ed.). (1968). The early recognition of childhood schizophrenia. In Schizophrenia in children (pp. 107–117). New York: Brunner/Mazel Publishers.

Evans, Bonnie. (2013). How autism became autism—The radical transformation of a central concept of child development in Britain. History of the Human Sciences, 26(3), 3–31.PubMedCentralPubMedCrossRef

Feinstein, Adam. (2010). A History of autism: Conversations with the pioneers. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.CrossRef

Jacobsen, Kurts. (2010). Diagnostic Politics: The curious case of Kanner’s syndrome. History of Psychiatry, 21(4), 436–454.PubMedCrossRef

Kanner, Leo. (1935). Child psychiatry (1st ed.). London: Bailliere, Tindall & Cox.CrossRef

Kanner, Leo. (1943). Autistic disturbance of affective contact. Nervous Child, 2, 217–250.

Kanner, Leo. (1949). Problems of nosology and psychodynamics of early infantile autism. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 19(3), 416–426.PubMedCrossRef

Kanner, Leo. (1965). Infantile autism and the schizophrenias. Behavioural Science, 10(4), 412–420.CrossRef

Kanner, Leo. (1968). Early infantile autism revisited. Psychiatry Digest, 29(2), 17–28.PubMed

Lyons, V., & Fitzgerald, M. (2007). Asperger (1906–1980) and Kanner (1894–1981), the two pioneers of autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37(10), 2022–2023.PubMedCrossRef

Schopler, Eric, Chess, Stella, & Eisenberg, Leon. (1981). Our memorial to Leo Kanner. Journal for Autism and Developmental Disorders, 11(3), 257–267.CrossRef

Verhoeff, Berend. (2013). Autism in flux: A history of the concept from Leo Kanner to DSM-5. History of Psychiatry, 24(4), 442–458.PubMedCrossRef

Titel: Did Kanner Actually Describe the First Account of Autism? The Mystery of 1938
Auteur: Sam Fellowes
Publicatiedatum: 01-07-2015
Uitgeverij: Springer US
Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders / Uitgave 7/2015
Print ISSN: 0162-3257
Elektronisch ISSN: 1573-3432
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-015-2371-3

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