Debate: Are Kanner and Asperger syndromes the same?

Post Reply New Topic

I realize there are some differences (mainly at the 3 years of age point in developed language), however, as Hans was unaware of the Kanner form and since he lived in Nazi territory at the time, I wonder if his need fluff up the aspects of what he discovered, in others he did not make it sound that bad to throw off Nazis, if he in fact was describing the same thing as Kanner, but from a different perpective. Basically, I wonder, was there really ever two disorders. Even today that question is fuzzy. I wonder if Asperger, like Nostradamus when he hid his predictions by writing codes and in different languages to escape religious scrutiny, really either fluffed over, negated, or twisted any way the full scope of what he really concluded. Any thoughts?

I would think not since if he ws doing it to keep the nazis at bay, once the nazi threat had passed, he would have recanted, or found some way to quietly "discredit" his orignal work.

This maybe so, yet the debate remains. I brought this subject up, because nearly everything I read or have read about Aspergers, comes his discovery to Kanner and postulate on whether there were in fact talking about the same disorder. And granted the language delay is one difference, but what if is not actually a difference but just a different way of developing the same disorder. Do all people get a cold from going outside in cold whether? Perhaps not but they can and yet it is the same thing as a cold you catch from someone else. Was Typhoid Mary responsible for all Typhoid breakouts everywhere? Can you not get some illness from rats or mosquitoes the same way you get it from other people? Do all people with a flu have headaches or through or have stomach cramps and are they in a specific order for a limited amount of time? That was part of my point even if you say he may have recanted this or that. Did he ever learn about Kanner's to recant this or change that? If it smells like a rose, looks like a rose, and stings like a rose then is it not a rose, what difference would it make if it were planeted or if it grew naturally? If experts in the field still argue over it, will we be able to say different?

As they both borrowed the word "autism" from a previous definition, what of it?

Didn't Kanner have some children as part of his study that would be described as asperger??

He as a psychiatrist just labels differences as disorder as per his natural inclination

One source, I read speculated that Hans Asperger actually had Aspergers.

Well it's not unlikely is it? Would an NT be able to analyse something NTs assume to be normal, and natural?

yes, gwynfryn. otherwise - extrapolating your question - my gynaecology consultant (male) is in DEAD trouble.

Quite probably. Asperger definitely had some who would today be described as Kanner, including speech delay.

Scoots, Asperger DID recant. During the 0s, he was VERY defensive about the children he worked with and insisted that they could be percieved as a personality type. He said that such was the ability of those people, it would not be unreasonable to assume that they could achieve things that no non-Autistic can achieve.(he was very optomistic indeed)





ASman, you know that saying about 'if your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail'. It really applies here. Asperger was overly optomistic after the war ended to reverse the 'Autistic Psychopathy' description he had applied earlier, but his opinion of the children was certainly much higher than what he originally wrote.

All of Kanner's children were in a state that would class them as high-functioning, he never said anything about them not being able to talk. In fact, just like Asperger, he said they spoke in an odd way. All of them. Kanner still made a poor prognosis despite contradicting evidence. This evidence was later used to refute the refridgerator mother theory by parents that felt victimised. They conveniently didn't overturn Kanner's remaining inaccuracies, leaving jurisprudance saying that Autistics were Schizophrenic children.

Note that Asperger was a Paediatrician, Kanner was a Psychologist. Kanner understood diseases of the mind, but Asperger understood children. Historically, Asperger was in a much better position to make an objective analysis.



Epimonandas, it certainly is possible but it will have to remain speculation. It is speculated that Tony Attwood gives such a good impression of AS because he has secretly self-diagnosed himself, could Asperger have done the same?

Thanks, Lucas.

I figured there had to be a reason the debate was still going on.