In my coming book, Autism Dreaming, I devote two chapters to the question of what autism is, one early in the book, the other near the end. In them, I  do my best to give the two discoverers of autism, Hans Asperger and Leo Kanner, a say in this matter. I’m not one of those who thinks the thinking of people of the past is obsolete.

Someone else apparently of this view is psychologist Tony Attwood, author of the 2007 book, The Complete Guide to Asperger’s Syndrome (Autism Spectrum Disorder), which I have, so far, only been able to scan briefly.

Attwood treats autistic children himself, and from what I’ve read of the book, he appears to be resisting the demotion of Asperger Syndrome (AS) as a diagnosis, or arguing that it still exists within the concept of ASD (autism spectrum disorder), for he includes a copy of the DSM-5 description of autism as ASD, in which AS was removed, along with his own commentary on that.

For now, all I want to present here is a quote from Attwood’s book on his own assessment of such children:

I usually say to the child, “Congratulations, you have Asperger’s Syndrome”, and explain that he or she is not mad, or bad, or defective, but has a different way of thinking.

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Published by Alan Conrad

Alan Conrad is the author of The Shyness Guide, and two novels - The Birdcatcher, a book he calls his declaration of independence for shy people, and Skol, the story of a shy 17 year old boy alone in a twenty-third century galactic empire. He has also written many SF short stories.

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