Using the term Asperger's Syndrome

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I know this is an outdated term but is it considered offensive in the community? It was my original diagnosis and when I received it, I was glad to have something to identify my differences by and be able to use it to better identify my behaviors and reach out to the community. Furthermore, Autism Spectrum Disorder feels like it now falls under such a wide umbrella that I need more description beyond the term 'high functioning' and adding on the AS makes it a little more precise.

I hear a lot of people arguing about the terms negative history but I personally feel like if we were to change every term due to the past, there would be a lot more changes to terms within the medical and psychological communities (as well as other fields) and the choice to target this term among all the others that can be tracked to a negative past seems kind of arbitrary to me.

I wanted to get a wider opinion on the term and thus am posting this.

I was dxd as having aspergers syndrome a couple of years ago. And I still refer to myself as an "aspie".

And aspie and aspergers are used as often as is "autistic" is on this site.

So go ahead and use the term here. Its not against the "corporate culture" here to use it.

One outsider some years ago took offense at how everyone here freely uses the term "aspie" and was offended. But he didnt get much sympathy from Wrong Planet residents.

I don't like the way Asperger's is named after some nazi and I don't like the word either. Most British accents don't pronounce it properly, they say
As-p-her-jers and it's really cringing, I cannot bear people saying it out loud. I don't want it to be part of my identity.

I wish it just had a normal name like Jones syndrome or something, or was abbreviated like SCSD (Social Communication Sensory Disorder) or something, like ADHD is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Of all the disabilities I could have been cursed with, it had to be the one with the most humiliating name.

I'm not a fan of the term for a couple of reasons.

1) The term "aspie" has a nasty history attached to it (as you mentioned).
2) The term "aspie" often implies that a person is "high functioning", and I believe functioning labels really DO harm the autistic community.

For these reasons, I think "autistic" is much more succinct/accurate.

When a term is changed to include more categories, it becomes less useful to convey specific information. If the Asperger term fails to capture a larger audience, that larger audience may wish to use the broader term.

I use the term Aspergers or Aspie for myself because I feel it is more accurate. However, since most people have no idea that Aspergers or ASD is, I generally never use the terms at all and if I have to will only use a description appropriate to the situation. For example, I may object to an offensive odor by saying that I have a sensitive sense of smell.

I used to be very adamant in being against the DSM taking away the Aspergers diagnosis, and language police bullies on this site and elsewhere who insisted we do not call ourselves aspies. It got really bad around here in 2014 when us aspie identifiers were constantly accused of being ableist elitists who were identifying as aspies because we did not want to be associated with “real autistics”.

That was then, this is now. Since the truth about Hans Asperger was unearthed I don’t identify as Aspie anymore. While I would prefer others not identify as Aspies after experiencing that bullying back then, and seeing the harm “canceling” has done in the ensuing years no way I am going to insist that you do not identify as Aspie. That is personal to you and none of anybody else’s business.

I have no problem with other people using it, I just prefer not to, because first of all I don't know how to pronounce it, it sounds like ass-burgers, and I do NOT want that! Also, I find it hard to fit into categories. I prefer to say that I'm autistic. It sounds better, and feels right to me.

Ass-burgers lol

I don't think there's any actual issue with using the term. If someone was diagnosed with that and/or think it fits them better, then I don't think anyone can tell them not to use it for themselves. I find the idea of telling other autistic people what terms they can use to be controlling and ridiculous, especially regarding a disorder that has so many different genes + different symptoms and behaviours associated with it.

I start with the finest quality rump roast when I have ass-burgers.

Ass Burgers - Wikipedia

The doctor who discovered it was a German speaking Austrian, and not an American Mobster of Italian extraction...like Arnold Anastasio, or like the Genovasi Gang (who famously gunned down Anastasio while he was in that barber's chair), or Sam Giancana, or Lucky Luciano.

If only the doctor had some melodious Italian mobster name! Then we would be labeled "Anastasians" .

The Soviet Woman psychiatrist Grunya Sukhareva published her discoveries of (what we now call "autism") twenty years before the work of either Hans Asperger, or Leo Kanner. But her work was largely ignored.

So we could rename "Aspergers" after her.

So it would then be "Sukhareva Syndrome".

And the folks so diagnosed would be "Sukharevans".


We would have to put up with wisecrackers saying "there's a Sukharevan born every minute", but we wouldnt have to deal with the "ass burgers" meme.

Actually saying "autism spectrum disorder" is not logical if there is no Asperger. Because the word "spectrum" implies that there is more than one diagnosis. So what exactly do you mean by more than one? If you look at DSM 4, you have Kanner's, Retts, Hellers and Asperger. But, effectively, Hellers and Retts is very rarely if ever being referred to by ASD. So the only thing that would make it a spectrum is a presence of Asperger. Which is why what happened in DSM 5 is illogical.

My theory is that people started using the term "autism spectrum" within the DSM 4 context, where they "did" have Asperger. But then they got so used to the phrase that it never occurred to them that its very existence is linked to the word Asperger. Thats why nobody besides me ever voiced this "linguistic" objection. Sure, there was a lot of different objections. Just not this one.

In any case, I like to always say I have Asperger Syndrome. Even without the word spectrum, I would still consider myself as Asperger rather than autistic. So thats what I still say now. I remember five years ago I went to a counselor and asked how he diagnosed me. He said ASD. And I asked "how can I be ASD if I don't have enough of the symptoms listed (they raised the bar)" and then I pointed out to him that there is "social communication disorder" in DSM 5 and asked why can't I be diagnosed with this. He looked at it and said yes he can change my diagnosis to Social Communication Disorder. And then I was like isn't it weird that you can change the diagnosis on a whim like that? And then he said yeah, since I don't need medications, so its not as important for me as it might be for some other people. But then he added that he can just put Asperger with DSM 4 in the brackets if I feel more comfortable that way. I said sure. So thats what he put.

Thank you for your responses. It's really interesting to see the wide variety of opinions on this.

(--not sure if the APA itself is a lot more wholesome than Herr Asperger but... )

A Ghost Planet is when scientists at first think they've discovered a new planet but then later investigation proves it doesn't exist.
A Ghost Planet typically only exists for a few years, but in the meantime people treat it as if it were real, thus creating a (brief) mythic history for the name.

Asperger's is like a Ghost Planet (1994-2013).