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Hans Asperger was born on a farm in ],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.biographie.net/Hans-Asperger|accessdate=2011-01-23|title=Hans Asperger Biography|publisher=Biographie.net}}</ref> just outside of ].<ref name="whonameit">{{cite web|url=http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/302.html|title=Whonameit biography|accessdate=11/8/2010}}</ref> He was the elder of two sons. In his youth he showed particular talents for language, frequently quoting ]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/hans-asperger/|title=Biography|accessdate=11/7/2010}}</ref> He had difficulty finding friends and was considered a lonely, remote child.<ref name=Lyons/><ref>{{cite book |first=Adam |last=Feinstein |year=2010 |title=A History of Autism: Conversations with the Pioneers}}, p. 15</ref> Asperger studied medicine at the ] under Franz Hamburger<ref name = Feinstein>{{cite book |first=Adam |last=Feinstein |year=2010 |title=A History of Autism: Conversations with the Pioneers}}, p. 15</ref> and practiced at the University Children's Hospital in Vienna. He was conferred doctor of medicine in 1931 and assumed directorship of the play-pedagogic station at the university children's clinic in Vienna in 1932.<ref name="whonameit" /> He married in 1935 and had five children.<ref name=Lyons/> Hans Asperger was born on a farm in ],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.biographie.net/Hans-Asperger|accessdate=2011-01-23|title=Hans Asperger Biography|publisher=Biographie.net}}</ref> just outside of ].<ref name="whonameit">{{cite web|url=http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/302.html|title=Whonameit biography|accessdate=11/8/2010}}</ref> He was the elder of two sons. In his youth he showed particular talents for language, frequently quoting ]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/hans-asperger/|title=Biography|accessdate=11/7/2010}}</ref> He had difficulty finding friends and was considered a lonely, remote child.<ref name=Lyons/><ref>{{cite book |first=Adam |last=Feinstein |year=2010 |title=A History of Autism: Conversations with the Pioneers}}, p. 15</ref> Asperger studied medicine at the ] under Franz Hamburger<ref name = Feinstein>{{cite book |first=Adam |last=Feinstein |year=2010 |title=A History of Autism: Conversations with the Pioneers}}, p. 15</ref> and practiced at the University Children's Hospital in Vienna. He was conferred doctor of medicine in 1931 and assumed directorship of the play-pedagogic station at the university children's clinic in Vienna in 1932.<ref name="whonameit" /> He married in 1935 and had five children.<ref name=Lyons/>


Based on Hamberger's espoused sympathy with the Nazi Party, and Asperger's enthusiasm for the Jugendbewegung, a movement similar to the Boy Scouts which was later merged with the ] (see ]), some critics have asserted Asperger had an important formative relationship with the Nazi Party. There is solid evidence to support this assertion, including significant ] statements in Asperger's university theis, yet some apologists have argued that the political climate in Austria contributed to these statements.<ref name = Feinstein/> Based on Hamberger's espoused sympathy with the Nazi Party, and Asperger's enthusiasm for the Jugendbewegung, a movement similar to the Boy Scouts which was later merged with the ] (see ]), some critics have asserted Asperger had an important formative relationship with the Nazi Party. There is solid evidence to support this assertion, including significant ] statements in Asperger's university thesis, yet some apologists have argued that the political climate in Austria contributed to these statements.<ref name = Feinstein/>


In the later years of ] he was a medical officer, serving in the occupation of ]; his younger brother died at ].<ref name=Lyons/> In 1944, after the publication of his landmark paper describing autistic symptoms, he found a permanent tenured post at the ]. Shortly after the war ended, he became director of a children's clinic in the city. He was appointed chair of pediatrics at the University of Vienna, a post he held for twenty years. He later held a post at ]. Beginning in 1964, he headed the ] in ].<ref name="whonameit" /> He became professor emeritus in 1977. In the later years of ] he was a medical officer, serving in the occupation of ]; his younger brother died at ].<ref name=Lyons/> In 1944, after the publication of his landmark paper describing autistic symptoms, he found a permanent tenured post at the ]. Shortly after the war ended, he became director of a children's clinic in the city. He was appointed chair of pediatrics at the University of Vienna, a post he held for twenty years. He later held a post at ]. Beginning in 1964, he headed the ] in ].<ref name="whonameit" /> He became professor emeritus in 1977.

Revision as of 15:43, 3 April 2012

Hans Asperger
A white-coated man in his thirties sits at a table across from a boy. He looks intently at the boy through his rimless glasses. His hair is cropped fairly short on the sides and is wavy on top. The boy, seated in the foreground with his back toward the viewer, sits straight up, with one arm resting on the arm of a wooden chair.Asperger performing a psychological test on a child at the University Pediatric Clinic, Vienna, c. 1940.
BornFebruary 18, 1906
Vienna, Austria–Hungary
DiedOctober 21, 1980(1980-10-21) (aged 74)
Vienna
Known forDiscovery of Asperger syndrome
Medical career
ProfessionPhysician
InstitutionsUniversity Children's Hospital, Vienna
University of Vienna
Sub-specialtiesPediatrics
ResearchAutism

Hans Asperger (February 18, 1906 – October 21, 1980) was an Austrian pediatrician, medical theorist, and medical professor. He is best known for his landmark studies on mental disorders, especially in children. Though his work was largely unnoticed during his lifetime, except for a few accolades in Vienna, his studies on psychological disorders became world renown posthumously, and many of his pediatric diagnosis are now accepted standards. After him, the mental disorder Asperger syndrome (AS) was named. He wrote over 300 publications, mostly concerning autism in children.

Biography

Hans Asperger was born on a farm in Hausbrunn, just outside of Vienna. He was the elder of two sons. In his youth he showed particular talents for language, frequently quoting Franz Grillparzer He had difficulty finding friends and was considered a lonely, remote child. Asperger studied medicine at the University of Vienna under Franz Hamburger and practiced at the University Children's Hospital in Vienna. He was conferred doctor of medicine in 1931 and assumed directorship of the play-pedagogic station at the university children's clinic in Vienna in 1932. He married in 1935 and had five children.

Based on Hamberger's espoused sympathy with the Nazi Party, and Asperger's enthusiasm for the Jugendbewegung, a movement similar to the Boy Scouts which was later merged with the Hitler Youth (see German Youth Movement), some critics have asserted Asperger had an important formative relationship with the Nazi Party. There is solid evidence to support this assertion, including significant eugenic statements in Asperger's university thesis, yet some apologists have argued that the political climate in Austria contributed to these statements.

In the later years of World War II he was a medical officer, serving in the occupation of Croatia; his younger brother died at Stalingrad. In 1944, after the publication of his landmark paper describing autistic symptoms, he found a permanent tenured post at the University of Vienna. Shortly after the war ended, he became director of a children's clinic in the city. He was appointed chair of pediatrics at the University of Vienna, a post he held for twenty years. He later held a post at Innsbruck. Beginning in 1964, he headed the SOS-Kinderdorf in Hinterbrühl. He became professor emeritus in 1977.

Asperger died before his identification of this pattern of behaviour became widely recognized because his work was mostly in German and little-translated. The first person to use the term "Asperger's Syndrome" in a paper was British researcher Lorna Wing. Her paper, Asperger's syndrome: a clinical account, was published in 1981 and challenged the previously accepted model of autism presented by Leo Kanner in 1943. It was not until 1989 that his reports were translated into English. Unlike Kanner who overshadowed Asperger, the latter's findings were ignored and disregarded in the English-speaking world in his lifetime. In the early 1990's Aspeger's relatively obscure work gained some notice due to it having been translated in the 1980's. Asperger syndrome remains a controversial and contentious diagnosis due to its uncertain relationship to the rest of the Autistic spectrum, and does not have universal recognition.

Asperger syndrome

Main article: Asperger syndrome

Hans Asperger published a definition of Asperger syndrome in 1944 that was nearly identical with the definition that a Russian neurologist Grunya Sukhareva (Груня Ефимовна Сухарева) had published already in 1926. Hans Asperger identified in four boys a pattern of behavior and abilities that he called "autistic psychopathy," ( Die "Autistischen Psychopathen" im Kindesalter). The pattern included "a lack of empathy, little ability to form friendships, one-sided conversations, intense absorption in a special interest, and clumsy movements." Asperger called children with AS "little professors" because of their ability to talk about their favorite subject in great detail.

Asperger noticed that many of the children he identified as being autistic managed to use their special talents in adulthood and had an excellent career. One of them became a professor of astronomy and solved an error in Newton’s work he originally noticed already as a student. Asperger’s positive outlook contrasts strikingly with Leo Kanner's description of autism, of which Asperger's syndrome is often considered to be a high-functioning form. In his 1944 paper, as Dr. Uta Frith translated it from the German in 1991, Asperger wrote:

We are convinced, then, that autistic people have their place in the organism of the social community. They fulfil their role well, perhaps better than anyone else could, and we are talking of people who as children had the greatest difficulties and caused untold worries to their care-givers.

Near the end of World War II, Asperger opened a school for children with autistic psychopathy, with Sister Victorine Zak. The school was bombed towards the end of the war, Sister Victorine was killed, the school was destroyed and much of Asperger's early work was lost.

As a child, Asperger himself appeared to have exhibited features of the condition subsequently named after him. He was described as a lonely and remote child, who had difficulty making friends. He was talented in language; in particular he was interested in the Austrian poet Franz Grillparzer, whose poetry he would frequently quote to his uninterested classmates. He also liked to quote himself and often referred to himself from a third-person perspective.

One of Asperger's patients was Austrian writer and Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Elfriede Jelinek.

Asperger's birthday, February 18, was declared International Asperger's Day by Aspergers Services Australia and is observed by various autism-related organizations.

Papers

  • Asperger H (1938). "Das psychisch abnormale Kind ". Wien Klin Wochenschr (in German). 51: 1314–7.
  • Asperger H (1944). "Die "Autistischen Psychopathen" im Kindesalter ". Archiv für psychiatrie und nervenkrankheiten (in German). 117: 76–136. http://www.springerlink.com/content/u350x0683r1g6432/
  • Asperger H (1968). "". Acta Paedopsychiatr (in German). 35 (4): 136–45. PMID 4880461.
  • Asperger H (1974). "". Med Klin (in German). 69 (49): 2024–7. PMID 4444665.
  • Asperger H (1977). "". Padiatr Padol (in German). 12 (3): 214–23. PMID 331197.

References

  1. "TrueKnowledge Hans Asperger Biography". Trueknowledge.com. Retrieved 2011-01-23.
  2. "Hans Asperger Biography". Biographie.net. Retrieved 2011-01-23.
  3. ^ "Whonameit biography". Retrieved 11/8/2010. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  4. "Biography". Retrieved 11/7/2010. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  5. ^ Lyons V, Fitzgerald M (2007). "Did Hans Asperger (1906–1980) have Asperger Syndrome?". J Autism Dev Disord. 37 (10): 2020–1. doi:10.1007/s10803-007-0382-4. PMID 17917805.
  6. Feinstein, Adam (2010). A History of Autism: Conversations with the Pioneers., p. 15
  7. ^ Feinstein, Adam (2010). A History of Autism: Conversations with the Pioneers., p. 15
  8. Wing L (1981). "Asperger's syndrome: a clinical account". Psychol Med. 11 (1): 115–29. doi:10.1017/S0033291700053332. PMID 7208735. Retrieved 2007-08-15.
  9. "Asperger brief History". Bestbehaviour.ca. Retrieved 2011-01-23.
  10. Nieminen-von Wendt, Taina 2004: On the origins and diagnosis of asperger syndrome: a clinical, neuroimaging and genetic study. The University of Helsinki. Page 10. http://ethesis.helsinki.fi/julkaisut/laa/kliin/vk/nieminen-wendt/
  11. G. E. Ssucharewa 1926: Die schizoiden Psychopathien im Kindesalter. Monatsschrift für Psychiatrie und Neurologie 60:235-261.
  12. "Asperger Syndrome- Hans Asperger". Asperger-syndrome.me.uk. Retrieved 2011-01-23.
  13. "Paul Cooijmans Asperger summarized". Paulcooijmans.com. Retrieved 2011-01-23.
  14. Asperger, H. (1944), Die „Autistischen Psychopathen“ im Kindesalter. Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, 117, Pages 132-135.
  15. Asperger H; translated and annotated by Frith U (1991) . "'Autistic psychopathy' in childhood". In Frith U (ed.). Autism and Asperger syndrome. Cambridge University Press. pp. 37–92. ISBN 0-521-38608-X.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  16. "Zenemu Aspergers MMR myth". Zenemu.com. Retrieved 2011-01-23./
  17. Meyer, V., Koberg, R.: Elfriede Jelinek: Ein Porträt. Rowohlt 2006, p. 32
  18. "Asperger Adults of Greater Washington". AAGW.net. Retrieved 2011-01-23.

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