Find the Door: Hans Asperger and the "Little Professors"

In 1944, pediatrician Hans Asperger noted four boys in his practice, all exhibiting deficiencies in integrating socially. He noted a lack of nonverbal communication skills, failure to empathize with friends, and general issues with motor skills.

Hans Asperger's story is actually quite interesting, in his biography and through the study of these children, whom he dubbed "little professors." Born on February 6, 1906, he studied medicine in Vienna, Austria where he would later work and the University Children's Hospital. He married in 1935, and would become father to five children. There is no record of his experiences in the early years of World War II. In 1944, he published "'Autistic psychopathy' in childhood" describing the condition which would come to bear his name and later that year took a tenured position at the University of Vienna.

That Hans Asperger studied in Vienna, and would come to publish his findings on "autistic psychopathy" before the war's end in May the following year adds another dimension to his story. Austria, being absorbed into Nazi Germany as opposed to conquered, was spared damage and much of the fighting in the war up to the Vienna Offensive at the end. He was able to study in relative peace, though losing a brother in Stalingrad and serving a tour of duty as a medical officer in Croatia in the later years of the war. What did pertain to Hans Asperger and his research in the relative safety of Austria was the omnipresent shadow of the Reich and its eugenics programs.

The general motivation behind most of the Nazi Party's war crimes was racial purity, most blatantly recognized in their programs against Jews and other so-called "undesirables." In addition to racial and political (Marxists, trade unionists, etc) targets for persecution and/or outright extermination, the Nazis also focused their efforts on ensuring "genetic hygene," at first with compulsory sterilization programs. Soon the option was no longer compulsory, and soon after that euthanasia -- or mercy-killing -- was encouraged.

The precedent was set in the summer of 1939 when the parents of a severely deformed child successfully petitioned Adolf Hitler himself to permit the child to be put to sleep. Out of this act came what would soon be called Action T4 (named for the street address -- Tiergartenstrasse 4 -- of the program's headquarters). The program would persist through to 1941, though when Hitler ordered its cancellation, killings continued to occur on local levels in institutions up to the end of the war.

Throughout the life of the program, the killings met heavy opposition, in part because as opposed to other programs and the Holocaust as a whole, T4 was carried out with written authority from Hitler. Only those directly involved in a concentration camp were privy to the awful truth of that facility's purpose and not able to pass allegations off as rumor. It was harder to hide the truth with all of the doctors, nurses, and administrators involved. Many times, family members were far from willing to allow their loved ones to be killed. And so it was no wonder that Asperger was aware of this program.

His paper, though written three years after the end to T4, reflects the atmosphere of the time. With the Nazi Party still in power, but the program itself officially dead, Asperger saw fit to include a note defending the usefulness of those with autism and the form of autistic psychopathy he describes. Unofficial, localized programs still existed, and would be enough to concern him. He noted that "[w]e are convinced, then, that autistic people have their place in the organism of the social community. They fulfil their role well, perhaps better than anyone else could, and we are talking of people who as children had the greatest difficulties and caused untold worries to their care-givers."

Later, towards the end of the war, Asperger and a nun, Sister Victorine started up a school for children with the condition. The school was bombed, killing Sister Victorine and destroying much of Asperger's early work. Following the war, Asperger became director of a children's clinic in Vienna. He was appointed to Chair of Pediatrics at the University of Vienna, a post he held for 20 years. Later he would hold another post at Innsbruck, Austria. In 1964 he went on to head the SOS Children's Villages in Hinterbrühl, Austria.

The possible reasons for the slow recognition of Asperger's findings include the fateful bombing of his school, and the lack of translations of his work from the original German. As it was, Asperger continued his work, and held lectures, dying at the age of 74 in October of 1980, his findings in regards to autism still generally obscure. The following year, psychiatrist Lorna Wing published a paper referencing Asperger's studies, "Asperger's Syndrome: a Clinical Account." With this paper, she coined the term, "Asperger Syndrome" that we use today. Wing's paper would start to build the momentum that led to the recognition by the WHO and then the APA in the early 1990's.

The stories of Kanner and Asperger have now led back to 1994, and my final diagnosis. As we continue, I will recount the story in my own life...

Page 4

Born in the Box: 1980-1990

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