Chapter 4: Fascinating Peculiarities

     It is interesting that while Asperger was in Vienna studying children, a young American psychologist named Leo Kanner was doing similar studies in the United States. As far as we can tell, Kanner had no knowledge of Asperger or his studies until much later, and after he himself had made similar discoveries on autism. Kanner had a unique ability of being able to get his subjects’ parents to open up and discuss all kinds of different aspects of their children’s life, but connected the disorder to schizophrenia. Kanner had impostor syndrome for some time because he didn’t receive his degree in psychology from a traditional method. 

    While Kanner continued to study these children with unique and under-reported condition, the rise of the Nazi party and the beginning of World War II was happening in Europe. Instead of being corralled into gas chambers, children were being institutionalized in the U.S. Eventually, Kanner published his “Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact.” While he didn’t at the time give Autism its name, he was able to bring a unique perspective to the scientific forefront. However, Kanner focused solely on the children, and didn’t apply what he’d observed to teenagers and adults. In his study, Kanner observed the boy to display autistic aloneness and elaborate ritualistic behavior, helping to lay the characteristics for our current diagnosis of ASD.