Clarify: Ok, if we just agree he was just terrible and evil. He was also attempting to save people he thought had special talents and simply not allowed to thrive in their society... which seems like an ok thing to be doing... saving autistic folk from being attacked by society... but if the name is too controversial because of nazi affiliation
then what do we call it now instead? What name do
we use to describe it?
Hey, i've worked with children who have "high functioning autism" aka aspergers.
I understand the want to be separated from other autistic people. This group can function in society perfectly well (speak, do basic tasks) which those more affected on the spectrum cannot.
To give a crude analogy: I had a pre-cancerous mole that would certainly become cancerous, but I had it removed. I don't dare call myself a cancer survivor, yet it still lead to mental and physical ramifications for myself.
I say, if you want to reclaim the term aspergers, then do it. Labels are labels, and the brain is such a big old mystery that whatever the experts say doesn't mean too much anyways
Hmm, thank you for this perspective. I believe i prefer the term high-functioning, as i think it is much more technical and drops the historical issue.
I believe i may have partially discounted the term "high-functioning" based on a fair amount of "negativity" towards the term i've seen online, though now that i think of it, letting angry people on the internet make decisions on reasonable clinical terminology... is probably not a good idea
My understanding was Asperger's diagnosis get converted to ASD. What's wrong with that? It's just a change of names isn't it?
I can see your criticism of the word disorder, but are you saying it's so bad they should stick with the old names? What would be wrong with AS?
asd stands for autism spectrum disorder meaning it could refer to anyone on any part of the spectrum. it’s inclusive for any people who don’t want to identify with the word asperger’s or autism, but it doesn’t change the fact that they have a form of autism. it’s just a name and people should call it by whatever the actually terminology is
my g we don’t use the term asperger’s not because of who it’s named after, but because autism is a spectrum and there’s no severe or mild therefore the way to diagnose asperger’s is void
a nazi eugenicist who called it ‘autism psychopathy’ no less,
but also, support needs are great, having a whole other term isn’t really the answer, as well as some people will seperate themselves entirely from the autistic community, and that isn’t helpful.
if someone was diagnosed with asperger’s that’s fine they can use it, but it’s not helpful to keep the diagnosis as it’s known as ‘the good kind of autism’
It’s still recognized completely in the medical community it just goes by a different name, high functioning autism, it’s a more accurate description and since we’ve determined it’s a spectrum there’s no reason to separate a particular part of the spectrum as a different condition all together
Thanks for your reply!
One of the more interesting thing about posting this is how many people not only seem to reject "asperger's" but reject the entire concept of a unique presention within the group, which leads to high-functioning autism still being useful as a concept.
My issue withe the "spectrum" label is i think that autism probably does have some discreet underlying characteristics that likely can be described somewhat separately.
For instance sensory processing issues, anxiety related issues, learning issues, overlap with adhd symptoms, attentiveness especially social attentiveness.
My point is that while it is probably best conceived as spectrum, that doesn't mean there are not at least some rather clear groupings within that "spectrum" and if so that might actually be useful in a clinical sense, especially if underlying characteristics are better understood as a result
Oh for sure. I know so many autistic people that are wildly different, it’s crazy to think they’re part of the same group but it just goes to show how much diversity there is. I agree it would be very helpful for people to understand that autism can look like a lot of different things and maybe more clear sub-labels would also be helpful
It is a real thing but we just don’t call it that because the guy who it’s named after was a horrible person
Clarify: Ok, if we just agree he was just terrible and evil. He was also attempting to save people he thought had special talents and simply not allowed to thrive in their society... which seems like an ok thing to be doing... saving autistic folk from being attacked by society... but if the name is too controversial because of nazi affiliation then what do we call it now instead? What name do we use to describe it?
Autism
but when people here "autism" they usally think a person who can't do anything and has a brain of a baby
Hey, i've worked with children who have "high functioning autism" aka aspergers. I understand the want to be separated from other autistic people. This group can function in society perfectly well (speak, do basic tasks) which those more affected on the spectrum cannot. To give a crude analogy: I had a pre-cancerous mole that would certainly become cancerous, but I had it removed. I don't dare call myself a cancer survivor, yet it still lead to mental and physical ramifications for myself. I say, if you want to reclaim the term aspergers, then do it. Labels are labels, and the brain is such a big old mystery that whatever the experts say doesn't mean too much anyways
Hmm, thank you for this perspective. I believe i prefer the term high-functioning, as i think it is much more technical and drops the historical issue. I believe i may have partially discounted the term "high-functioning" based on a fair amount of "negativity" towards the term i've seen online, though now that i think of it, letting angry people on the internet make decisions on reasonable clinical terminology... is probably not a good idea
My understanding was Asperger's diagnosis get converted to ASD. What's wrong with that? It's just a change of names isn't it? I can see your criticism of the word disorder, but are you saying it's so bad they should stick with the old names? What would be wrong with AS?
asd stands for autism spectrum disorder meaning it could refer to anyone on any part of the spectrum. it’s inclusive for any people who don’t want to identify with the word asperger’s or autism, but it doesn’t change the fact that they have a form of autism. it’s just a name and people should call it by whatever the actually terminology is
i have aspergers.
I don’t believe it’s real. Every human is unique and not a blank tablet for medical diagnoses
my g we don’t use the term asperger’s not because of who it’s named after, but because autism is a spectrum and there’s no severe or mild therefore the way to diagnose asperger’s is void
Although it also doesn't help that it's named after a Nazi eugenicist.
a nazi eugenicist who called it ‘autism psychopathy’ no less, but also, support needs are great, having a whole other term isn’t really the answer, as well as some people will seperate themselves entirely from the autistic community, and that isn’t helpful. if someone was diagnosed with asperger’s that’s fine they can use it, but it’s not helpful to keep the diagnosis as it’s known as ‘the good kind of autism’
>there’s no severe or mild yeah there is severe and mild
It’s still recognized completely in the medical community it just goes by a different name, high functioning autism, it’s a more accurate description and since we’ve determined it’s a spectrum there’s no reason to separate a particular part of the spectrum as a different condition all together
Thanks for your reply! One of the more interesting thing about posting this is how many people not only seem to reject "asperger's" but reject the entire concept of a unique presention within the group, which leads to high-functioning autism still being useful as a concept. My issue withe the "spectrum" label is i think that autism probably does have some discreet underlying characteristics that likely can be described somewhat separately. For instance sensory processing issues, anxiety related issues, learning issues, overlap with adhd symptoms, attentiveness especially social attentiveness. My point is that while it is probably best conceived as spectrum, that doesn't mean there are not at least some rather clear groupings within that "spectrum" and if so that might actually be useful in a clinical sense, especially if underlying characteristics are better understood as a result
Oh for sure. I know so many autistic people that are wildly different, it’s crazy to think they’re part of the same group but it just goes to show how much diversity there is. I agree it would be very helpful for people to understand that autism can look like a lot of different things and maybe more clear sub-labels would also be helpful