"We now come to the stage where we must determine how to recognise Asperger Disorder (once referred to as “Asperger Syndrome”).
A key factor to bear in mind, at all times, is that Asperger Disorder is most definitely a type of childhood autism and, therefore, it becomes evident at age 3 years, or less. The peculiarity of Asperger Autism lies in the fact developmental delays will most certainly constitute a significant factor, affecting the evenness of intellectual development. However, this is by no means a consequence of inherited low-intelligence. On the contrary, Asperger children (and adults) tend to be the product of families where intellectuality predominates. Hans Asperger noted:
“Often we found among our children descendants of famous dynasties in science and art, but sometimes there was an impression that from all their greatness, only oddities and quirks remained in the child, which are often inherent in great scientists.” (Hans Asperger)
To fully understand Asperger’s autism, it is essential to grasp the point that Asperger children usually perform very poorly in school. This may give rise to frustration amongst teachers and parents because these children tend to stand out as being perceptive, but remain unteachable. This, in fact, is the essence of Asperger autism, where acute learning difficulties become evident, against a backdrop of unusual perceptiveness, originality of thought-processes and indirectly perceptible intelligence. None of the above will be evident to less perceptive observers.
Specifically, what Asperger noticed was a glaring discrepancy between the actual intelligence of his patients, and the lagging, ineffectual development of this intellectual potential, due to what he designated “mechanised teaching”. In other words, Asperger children lag behind neurotypical children in the classroom, not due to stupidity but rather as a result of a blockade. They cannot be taught through personal communication, or understand explanations from adults. They do not respond to systems and structures, courses and grades. Any attempt to “establish contact” and “communicate” information via personal, emotional connection is doomed to fail. By the same token, systematized education likewise relies upon emotional input, made evident by its dependence upon approval, hierarchy, status and demand to formulate thought-processing along these lines. Asperger children, on the other hand, process information inwardly (autism) and their perception of reality relies upon their own understanding. In order to support my explanations, up to this point, I will now include some quotations:
(1)”And here we come to an important conclusion. The complications that mechanised teaching causes to autists, the inability to think the same way adults teach, the difficulties that learning from them occasion, the desire to derive everything only from their own perception and thinking, – even among the smartest of them, in many cases has a negative effect.” (Hans Asperger )
The above is confirmed by Dutch psychiatrist Van Krevelen who actually met Hans Asperger’s patients himself:
(2)“The psychological profile of the autistic psychopath (Asperger patient) exhibits three characteristics: Mainly in relation to his environment, he is unable to receive knowledge from others. This becomes quite clear due to poor results in the first grade. The child follows his inclinations because he cannot pay attention to the teacher’s requirements. ” (Van Krevelen).
(3)“We wish to demonstrate that the significant deviation from normality is caused by an absence of a physical relationship to the world, and said disconnection explains all their anomalies.” (Hans Asperger).
With regard to Asperger Pathology, the core root of the type of autism we are addressing is connected to an inability to relate to other human beings, connect with family, teachers or environment, specifically at the emotional level. It must be stressed to the highest degree that human beings evolved to assimilate knowledge through the medium of personal interaction, emotional connection, sensitivity to emotional feedback (as in approval, or disapproval), family environment and cultural influence.
“The influence on a child who is brought up in a family is mainly through feelings, through the interaction of feelings of children and parents” (Hans Asperger)
On the basis of what we have considered so far, we can assume a typical child who suffers Asperger Autism will most definitely be problematic at school. There will be behavioural problems, a tendency not to listen to (or respond to) explanations from others. There may well be a widespread conception that such a child is deliberately “pretending to be stupid”, since Asperger children often show signs of unusual perceptiveness, or may be voracious readers. However, as a result of their clear disconnection from others, there remains little doubt that both intellectual, as well as emotional, delays will affect overall development.
One important point to stress is that the above description is not one and the same thing as ADHD. What Asperger described was a neurological condition, referred to by psychiatrists as “Autistic Psychopathy”. The term denotes an actual breakdown in the mechanism of relationship between the autistic individual and other human beings, as stated earlier. There is a total absence of emotional connection, lack of awareness of others (or responsiveness regarding their external relativity to “self”). Psychiatrists, during the era of Asperger, perceived the condition as very similar to Schizophrenia, but stressed it was effectively stable in its continuity. Autistic psychopaths (Asperger Autism) don’t develop psychotic, delusional thought-processes. They “withdraw” totally from the world around them. They may view the world around them from a different perspective but all their judgements and evaluations remain rational. Such perspectives (as we emphasised earlier), tend to be formed inwardly and remain quite detached from external influences. Whereas, with Schizophrenia, we encounter psychotic episodes, in which any concrete perception of reality may be lost for a time.
Now that we have hopefully defined the core element which rationalises the source of all the other symptoms, we can describe each one in turn.
Back in the 1940s, at the university clinic of Vienna, Hans Asperger outlined a whole range of behavioural peculiarities, which he noticed in his patients. One or two of these have been omitted by modern psychologists and will be included.
V. Gilyarovskiy once wrote:
“Здесь, как и вообще в патологии, приходится считаться с тем фактом, что каждое изменение, взятое само по себе в отдельности, не имеет особого значения; оно приобретает его вместе с другими, когда является частью целого синдрома.”
“Here, specifically, and in the general sense of pathology, it is necessary to take into account that each change, taken in isolation, has no special meaning. It only makes sense in the overall context, when it becomes part of a whole syndrome.” (Gilyarovskiy)
There has been a tendency in modern psychology to create separate diagnostic definitions for the range of symptoms Asperger described. However, here we will follow the recommendations of the psychiatrist Gilyarovskiy to consider all the symptoms in context. Before we look at the main symptoms of Asperger Autism, I will summarise what we have considered so far:
(1) The neurological condition outlined by Hans Asperger comes under the category of Autism and Psychopathy. In such cases, there exists a blockade that shuts out external communication pathways. The cause of the blockade is connected to a disconnection from other human beings, often including immediate family:
“When mother and son go to the clinic together for class, the mother wanders around as if not noticing the world around her, crossing her arms behind her back. The child meantime runs wild next to her, rushing back and forth. The implication would suggest they have nothing to do with each other.” (Asperger).
The blockade interferes with the normal process of acquiring information and leads to educational complications:
“They do not perceive impulses from the outside” (Asperger)
(2) If specialised educational methods are applied, Asperger children respond very positively in such a case. Such a system was developed by Asperger over some 10 years. The method avoids systematic, group-based, hierarchical education and discourages any reliance upon emotional interaction during classes. The specialist teachers were required to be as unemotional and clinical as possible. This enabled the children to be more secure and under far less pressure. It enabled them to engage.
“With the help of reason, rules and laws, autistic children can learn what other children assimilate on their own”. (Asperger)If
Therefore, it was concluded these autistic people could be integrated successfully.
(3) It cannot be stressed too hard that the modern stereotyping of Asperger Autism as “Geek Syndrome” ignores the actual research passed down to us. Such children were never outstanding at school. The overall picture is quite unlike that of famous scientists, such as Einstein, who achieved constantly impressive grades in institutions. Giftedness is indeed a known factor in Asperger Autism but, in such cases, the giftedness lies in a narrow area and mostly arises from self-tuition. For example, Dr. Asperger’s most gifted patient Fritz F. (who became an outstanding mathematician), performed very poorly in every school he attended.
(4) Asperger Autism always begins in childhood, as does Kanner Autism (which many psychologists believe to be an identical pathology). On the other hand, autism in Schizophrenia most often begins from the late teen years to the early twenties. In this latter case, cognitive and emotional development during early childhood would have been far less affected. Asperger Autism, however, is very clearly evident in early childhood.
In the next chapter, we will look at the productive symptoms of Asperger Autism. "