G. E. Sukhareva's place in the history of autism research: Context, reception, translation

<p>Grunya Efimovna Sukhareva was a Soviet child psychiatrist and neurologist who described an autism-like condition closely resembling Asperger’s syndrome about 20 years before Hans Asperger and Leo Kanner published their descriptions of autistic psychopathy and early infantile autism, first naming it schizoid psychopathy (1925), later renaming it autistic psychopathy (1959). While autistic-like syndromes were repeatedly described independently in many countries in the first half of the 20th century, Sukhareva seems to have been the only person to give a detailed description of the syndrome’s presentation in girls and its sex differences. Considered the founder of child psychiatry in Russia, she is little known elsewhere, despite a significant portion of her work being written in German. Awareness of Sukhareva and her work has been slowly making its way into autistic history, largely as a result of the 1996 publication of Sula Wolff’s translation of the 1926 case studies on schizoid psychopathy in boys, but the large majority of her work remains untranslated from German and/or Russian and inaccessible to many people. Her 1927 paper of case studies on girls, describing sex differences similar to those being described now, are virtually unknown even in German texts. Including the translation of Sukhareva’s German-language paper on schizoid psychopathy in girls, summaries of her Russian-language texts on the syndrome, and what is hoped is a comprehensive bibliography of her published work, this thesis seeks to place Sukhareva’s work and its reception within the wider context of research into autistic-like syndromes in Anglo-European medical literature, and to understand the impact of domestic and international politics of the 20th century on child psychiatry and the international exchange of scientific knowledge. The thesis also corrects misinformation found in some recent popular histories of autism.</p>

G. E. Sukhareva's place in the history of autism research: Context, reception, translation

<p>Grunya Efimovna Sukhareva was a Soviet child psychiatrist and neurologist who described an autism-like condition closely resembling Asperger’s syndrome about 20 years before Hans Asperger and Leo Kanner published their descriptions of autistic psychopathy and early infantile autism, first naming it schizoid psychopathy (1925), later renaming it autistic psychopathy (1959). While autistic-like syndromes were repeatedly described independently in many countries in the first half of the 20th century, Sukhareva seems to have been the only person to give a detailed description of the syndrome’s presentation in girls and its sex differences. Considered the founder of child psychiatry in Russia, she is little known elsewhere, despite a significant portion of her work being written in German. Awareness of Sukhareva and her work has been slowly making its way into autistic history, largely as a result of the 1996 publication of Sula Wolff’s translation of the 1926 case studies on schizoid psychopathy in boys, but the large majority of her work remains untranslated from German and/or Russian and inaccessible to many people. Her 1927 paper of case studies on girls, describing sex differences similar to those being described now, are virtually unknown even in German texts. Including the translation of Sukhareva’s German-language paper on schizoid psychopathy in girls, summaries of her Russian-language texts on the syndrome, and what is hoped is a comprehensive bibliography of her published work, this thesis seeks to place Sukhareva’s work and its reception within the wider context of research into autistic-like syndromes in Anglo-European medical literature, and to understand the impact of domestic and international politics of the 20th century on child psychiatry and the international exchange of scientific knowledge. The thesis also corrects misinformation found in some recent popular histories of autism.</p>

Seeing the forest and the trees: Disentangling autism phenotypes in the age of DSM-5

This paper, written in honor of Professor Ed Zigler, focuses on some of the themes in developmental disabilities research that were so central to his work. It has now been nearly 80 years since Leo Kanner first identified the prototypic form – early infantile autism – of what is now autism spectrum disorder. In this article we summarize the development of the concept and the important accumulation of knowledge over time that has now led us to the recognition of a broader autism phenotype just as, at the same time, the current official diagnostic system in the USA has narrowed the concept. We also address current controversies regarding autism as the diagnosis is impacted by age and developmental factors, gender, and cultural issues. In parallel to the work on intellectual deficiency and development pioneered by Zigler and his colleagues, we summarize some of the challenges for the years ahead.

The syndrome of early infantile autism

No abstract available.

AUTHOR PROGRAM «ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING OF CHILDREN WITH THE DISABILITIES UNDER THE CONDITIONS OF FEDERAL STATE EDUCATIONAL STANDARD» Grade 2

Taking into account the special educational needs of children with a diagnosis of «early infantile autism» learning the subject «English» has its own characteristics. Before creating a special educational program of English language tuition, such concepts as «signs of autism», «major issues» have been extensively studied. On the basis of the studied material, the goals and objectives of the training program were determined, the stages and techniques for working with children in this category were clarified. The program is designed for 68 hours, 2 hours of teaching a week.

New Information That People in High Places Do Not Want Us to Know About Autism

Until the 1930s, the term “autism” was not mentioned in the literature. Until then, vaccination programs did not exist in the United States. Leo Kanner applied the term “early infantile autism,” detailing 11 cases of children born in 1931. He thought these children seemed like they inhabited a world of one, hence the term “autism,” originally derived from Bleuler (1911). Kanner furnished the following description: “aloneness that, whenever possible, disregards, ignores, shuts out anything that comes to the child from the outside.” He initially claimed parents of children with autism were often cold and humorless perfectionists (Kanner, 1943), considering them to be “emotional refrigerators,” a characterization that haunted him, one he deeply regretted and ultimately recanted. There has been a significant rise in autism. Some of this is probably due to looser definitions, widened to include a broad “spectrum” of behaviors. However, even when I tightened up the criteria for inclusion, I still was able to observe a rather sizeable—in fact, dramatic and alarming—increment. Curious about why this might be so, I began to investigate. I discovered a great deal of secrecy, nontransparency, obstructionism, mystification, and even falsification of data in which people in high places were engaged. This article is intended to disclose facts heretofore obscured, hidden, or reassembled in fanciful ways and to raise questions and make scientific statements and social commentary on this highly important issue. Possible sources of toxicity are listed.

Psychotic spectrum disorders in childhood

For a long time, there was a strong belief of existing continuity between childhood-onset psychoses and adult psychoses. Important moment in understanding psychotic presentations during infancy and childhood is Kanner's description of early infantile autism. Later studies of Rutter and Kolvin, as well as new classification systems, have delineated pervasive developmental disorders from all other psychotic disorders in childhood. But clinical experience is showing that in spite of existence of the group of pervasive developmental disorders with subgroups within it and necessary diagnostic criteria there are children with pervasive symptoms, who are not fulfilling all necessary diagnostic criteria for pervasive developmental disorder. Therefore, in this paper we are discussing and pointing at psychotic spectrum presentations in children, which have not the right place in any existing classification system (ICD-10, DSM-IV).