Russian Female Needed Credit Over Hans Asperger According To Some
Written by SAPL on November 14th, 2018 in Science and Technology.
In the world of discovery and invention, it’s often been said that women are left out of the ending credits to the film.
An article from Scientific American suggests this may be true for accurately describing those with Asperger’s or autism.
Ladies, be prepared to either rejoice or roll your eyes in contempt as you read about a Russian’s reports of several adolescents in the early 1920s.
Much of the scientific community credits the findings of two men, Hans Asperger and Leo Kanner, for the discovery of Asperger’s in the mid 1940s.
But twenty years prior, Grunya Efimovna Sukhareva, began seeing patterns of young males with “autistic tendencies,” displaying traits she described with words and phrases such as “highly intelligent,” “introverted,” and likely to use philosophy to accompany discussions.
The young men also possessed skills such as musical talent or advanced mathematical capabilities. Overall, none had tremendous social experience and many saw the experience as not essential to their lives.
Irina Manouilenko, who runs a clinic in Stockholm, Sweden, translated Sukhareva’s original findings from Russian to English in 2013 and says her descriptions are very close to the most recent found in today’s diagnostic criteria.
From Scientific American:
“As more archival material is digitized, it’s becoming clear that Kanner and Asperger may need to share credit for the ‘discovery’ of autism—and that the condition’s history could be as complex as its biology.”
Girl Power by aaronlopresti/Deviant Art
