Autism History

In 1930s and 1940s Vienna, child psychiatrist Hans Asperger sought to define autism as a diagnostic category, aiming to treat those children, usually boys, he deemed capable of participating fully in society. Depicted as a compassionate and devoted researcher, Asperger was in fact deeply influenced by Nazi psychiatry. Although he did offer individualized care to children he deemed promising, he also prescribed harsh institutionalization and even transfer to Spiegelgrund for children with greater disabilities, who, he held, could not integrate into the community.

Andrew Wakefield reveals the inside story of desperate parents trying to help their autistic children, only to be labeled as abusers by social workers, medical professionals, and the courts. As the number of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders grows each year, new discoveries and controversies arise. Andrew Wakefield explores many of these in his thorough investigation of the recent trial case of the “Arizona 5,” which destroyed an Arizona family.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurological and developmental disorder that begins early in childhood and lasts throughout a person's life. With the help of time, we now have a better understanding of the disease spectrum. Those observations made by the early pioneers have evolved as breakthroughs in the disease management process. In exploring past human competency levels and myths of autism, an emphasis of significance is placed on increasing awareness and the reaction factors to seeking treatment, as the scope of early intervention.

Autism has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years, thanks to dramatically increasing rates of diagnosis, extensive organizational mobilization, journalistic coverage, biomedical research, and clinical innovation. Understanding Autism, a social history of the expanding diagnostic category of this contested illness, takes a close look at the role of emotion - specifically, of parental love - in the intense and passionate work of biomedical communities investigating autism.

For years, the media has often poked fun at various marginalized individuals, damaging the impact that these people have on the world. And this is especially true for the media’s portrayal of autism. In the modern day, we like to believe that we are more socially aware and more accepting of people’s differences. Then we get singer-songwriter Sia’s film Music. What should have been a story focused on the nuances of autism spectrum disorder was instead a foray into the pseudo-whimsical world of misrepresentation and autistic stereotypes.