Challenging The ASD Diagnosis

This is going very well, so far. Judging by the source material I have, to date, I believe it will be possible to reveal significant flaws in the ASD approach to autism. My position is the decision to attempt to diagnose high-functioning autism as a "spectrum disorder" will leave many people undiagnosed.

Firstly, autism as a "spectrum" was, in clinical terms, discredited as far back as the 1920s. The concept was introduced by a German anthropologist called Kretschmer. What you need to notice is the actual term "autism spectrum" wasn't used by Kretschmer, but the theory was exactly the same. Note here, Kretschmer describes opposite traits of one autistic pathology, used to diagnose all the possible variations:

"Gemütsruhig = quiet, meek and withdrawn.
Gemütskalt = cold, selfish, avoiding other people.
Gemütstumpf = morally insensitive - Stumpf überempfündlich = excessive emotion."

This is exactly what the ASD diagnostic system does. Two people who demonstrate contrasting characteristics, are said to "be on the spectrum". They get diagnosed with ASD but, to my mind, this is a huge step backwards. It relies upon a discredited system, rejected by leading European authorities decades ago.

The term "spectrum" naturally arose from the Schizoid Group of disorders. This application was pretty much the same as ASD and described the same thing. It's major flaw turned out to be vagueness, lack of definition and a general application outside the sphere of clinical psychology. In a series of essays, Prof G Suhareva outlines why the spectrum system failed to define the pathology she had researched.

Not only that but Wing and Goulde in the 1980s seened to view the spectrum concept as applied to a whole range of categories of disorders. Here she writes:

"There is no question that Asperger Syndrome can be regarded as a form of Schizoid Personality. The question is whether this grouping is of any value."

To me this suggests maybe Wing spoke of a "spectrum" of Schizoid Groups Of Disorder, of which Asperger Syndrome was one. Possibly she never figured psychiatrists years later would apply the concept of spectrum so deeply, it would disable her diagnosis altogether.

Add to this, Wing seems to have missed quite a few things. Here she writes:

"Furthemore, the word 'schizoid' was originally chosen to underline the relationship of the abnormal personality to Schizophrenia......There is not firm evidence of a special link between this syndrome and Schizophrenia." (Lorna Wing)

Yet here below, we see this evidence had been collected by German genetics researchers:

"The Schizoid Psychopathic Group has a certain relationship to Schizophrenia. This is supported by the following: Firstly, hereditary-biological data that indicates a large number of schizoid psychopaths within schizophrenic families. Secondly, similarities between the pre-psychotic personality of schizophrenics and schizoid psychopaths." (Prof G Suhareva)

Nobody ever questioned the ASD diagnosis so far as I know. It was simply accepted at face value. Going back a few years, something felt somehow wrong. I now believe ASD is a deeply flawed diagnostic approach to what was once Asperger Syndrome and HFA.