Kanner's autism case #1

In the 1940s, Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger both used the same new word (free archive copy) to describe the condition of their young patients: autism. As I called them, "Kanner's autism" trended towards children with more severe difficulties, while "Asperger's autism" trended towards children with less severe difficulties, but even that minimal distinction was imprecise. Autism today is diagnosed merely as a spectrum disorder without sub-type distinctions.

The psychologist who diagnosed me, about 20 years ago, mentioned after our discussion that she was "not allowed" to use some of the personal history I related for a diagnoses of Kanner's autism, because some of it was hearsay, things I remembered other people saying about me, which I could misremember or misinterpret. She was allowed, however, to use the same stories for diagnosis of Asperger's autism, which she did. I frequently wondered if my paperwork would be different, if she had access to interview my mother who could relate first-person stories of my childhood directly. Otherwise, why would this doctor even mention that distinction? I implicitly trusted this psychologist's opinions later after I learned that she had personal experience with non-verbal autistic people, so she was very familiar with "both sides" of the spectrum.

This 5-minute video, "Finding Donald", by The Atlantic talks about Kanner's first "Case 1" patient, Donald Triplett. It's related to a longer article they wrote about him, "Autism's First Child".

Watch on YouTube

I bring up this topic because Donald Triplett died on Thursday. He lived a very long life, beating the odds (see #3) by very many decades.