Hans Asperger was worse than we thought

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Please note that this post, and probably the whole thread, will discuss Nazism, ableism, the Holocaust, and parental rejection of children, amongst other things, and with specific details being mentioned.

Recent publications (particularly Neurotribes, an otherwise excellent book) have pushed the idea of Hans Asperger as an early proponent of neurodiversity and a kind of Schindler for autistic people, bravely protecting us from the Holocaust. Unfortunately, this seems to not be true.

New research into Asperger's behaviour during the occupation of Austria shows that he frequently pointed out in his reports that his patients were Jewish and made anti-Semitic comments about them, sometimes leading to their deaths. His relationships with Frankl and Weiss suggest that he probably wasn't a dedicated anti-Semite, but he must surely have known what he was doing.

Shortly after the euthanasia (which here means "killing of disabled people") programs started up, he gave a speech supporting them, saying that physicians have a responsibility to "prevent the transmission of diseased hereditary material—many cases that belong here are hereditary disorders—and to promote hereditary health".

He blamed children for the abuse they suffered, and often simply didn't believe them.

Even his speeches in support of a proto-neurodiversity were not exceptional. Monstrous Nazis like Erwin Jekelius believed that embracing neurodiversity for "those on the margin" would create more viable soldiers. That didn't stop them killing and euthanising thousands who were not "on the margin". (Perversely, this means that Nazi Germany was for a long time the first and only country to allow openly autistic people to serve in the military, until Israel created a special unit in 2015).

While Asperger did talk about positive aspects of autism, this wasn't an attempt on his part to save all the children in his clinic, including those who might not have seemed worth saving to the Nazis. He wrote about how he considered them "bizarre, eccentric, and useless".

Asperger didn't refer patients for sterilisation, but he did refer two-year-old Herta Schreiber to be euthanised because "the child must be an unbearable burden to the mother". He suggested the same for Elisabeth Schreiber (no relation). He didn't send another four who would later be sent by other doctors, which seems to be down to parental attitudes (Herta Schreiber's mother thought it would be better if Herta died).

At this point I don't really want to go on, but safe to say this is a pretty damning failing by our modern standards and is hard to reconcile with the Schindler narrative.

If you want to learn more then as well as the full article above, there is a good summary here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/ ... study-says

Discussion of this study an upcoming book saying similar things are in this WP thread

All that is pretty rough to read about. Pretty much all research in that time period was like that. Not just in Germany, in the US too. And many African countries.

In the US, look up James Marion Sims. We use many of his surgical techniques around the world to save lives. He pioneered the techniques by experimenting on his own slaves. If they didn’t have the condition he was working on, he created the condition. With or without anesthia. Some people died during his excruciating experiments. He is heralded today as a genius and savior of lives.

Do some digging into Bill and Melissa Gates and their work into HIV vaccines in Africa. When you receive a vaccine, you are getting a weakened version of the virus in order to let your body build immunity. Since we don’t have a working HIV vaccine yet (that we know of), these moms and babies develop HIV and die of AIDS.

And don’t even get me started on experiments in psychology. My own parents were victims of a time when doctors were treating young people with electric shock therapy for any behavior that they deemed outside of the norm. Including depression and drug use. Many people in this area (East Coast US) were sterilized because they were thought to have a mental or racial deficiency.

Hi, everybody. It's been suggested that in light of these terrible discoveries, the name of our condition should not be Asperger's. What do you think?

Higgie

I can see a whole lot of scandal-drama coming from aspies, parents and supporters when knowledge of this discovery unfolds.

May I suggest 'spectrum' as a nickname, as in the autism spectrum is a broad place

And . . .

Ho.ly Sh.it

This is bad news and a big blow. Okay, all I can say is that we will slay what dragons need to be slayed. And we will continue the human project. The human project is to build up, model, and advocate so that decent, constructive actions become more and more the norm.

I just saw this and was thinking to post it in a thread somewhere from yesterday that was asking if you prefer it being called asperger's or hfa. Yesterday, I didn't have an opinion, today I'm going to go with hfa.

That old saying, "If someone sounds too good to be true, they probably are" seems heartbreakingly true here. Pretty much everyone knew Kanner, Bettelheim and Freud were repulsive individuals with well-known ugly theories. Hans Asperger's sympathetic portrayal in Neurotribes raised some red flags for me. Turned out I was right. Sigh!

That's a very big blow to our community. I won't let that blow change who I am and some of the things that I like. I won't let that blow change my colours.

I never really expected him to be great morally or in terms of his political leanings. I love nietzsche's writing despite his failings. I respect heidegger's work despite his very, very, very grave failings.

I like the term "aspie" it is an evolution from the original "aspergers" which I have never used. But HFA is good too. I just don't like ASD because I don't like the " disorder" bit.

History is chock a block full of villains. Sometimes it is unhelpful to interlink whatever they produced, good or bad, as inseparable from their abhorrent political and moral position or character. But that is just my thoughts. When I think of my daughter as a (diagnosed ) aspie or myself as (a potential self-diagnosed) aspie, it makes me think of belonging to a group like this, sharing traits and similar stories with a group of people, it in no way makes me think of some dusty old man with a closet full of horrible leanings and rusty beliefs.