[Autism] Prof. Hans Asperger Collaborated With Nazis
Previously unexamined Nazi-era documents and patient records suggest that Prof. Hans Asperger, known for his early studies on mental disorders in children and whose name describes a form of autism, was actively involved in the Nazi regime's euthanasia programme in Austria. This is contrary to his claims of shielding his patients during the Nazi regime's tyranny, and shows that likely he likely ingratiated himself by referring children to a notorious euthanasia clinic, the notorious Am Spiegelgrund clinic in Vienna.
It's important to note Prof. Asperger's actual contribution with regards to autism here I think. At the time, his work largely went unnoticed and his studies on psychological disorders only acquired world renown posthumously. What we now call Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), which includes Asperger Syndrome, he originally called Autistic Psychopathy (which I find mildly amusing). It wasn't until a resurgence in the 1980's and as a result of his earlier research that the term Asperger Syndrome was first used to honour his contributions. The fact that Prof. Asperger spent so much of his career in Nazi-occupied Vienna have caused some controversy regarding his potential ties to National Socialism and its race hygiene policies in these several decades since. Asperger Syndrome was first officially recognized in the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) in 1994 but has since been removed, as of the publication of DSM-5 in 2013.
This was all uncovered by Austrian medical historian Herwig Czech, who reported his findings in the journal Molecular Autism. In it he says;
"[Prof Asperger] managed to accommodate himself to the Nazi regime and was rewarded for his affirmations of loyalty with career opportunities"
I didn't really know the full history behind Prof. Asperger, AS and how diagnosis first came about but this doesn't really strike me as being particularly shocking. It might clash with our initial perceptions of the world, where there is good and evil, good people and bad people, but the reality is pretty different. Doctors are not inherently good people, and self-preservation (if it can be called that) is a strong motivator.
What do you think about this news? What do you think about the idea of phasing out the use of Asperger Syndrome completely? Let me know your thoughts and feelings in the comment section down below, and as always make sure to follow me for the latest Cryptocurrency, Internet and Pop Culture updates. Until next time, Peace!
Sources:
Hans Asperger, National Socialism, and “race hygiene” in Nazi-era Vienna on Molecular Atom (https://molecularautism.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13229-018-0208-6)
Image from (page 8) of: Frith U (1991). "Asperger and his syndrome". In Frith U. Autism and Asperger syndrome. Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–36. ISBN 0-521-38608-X (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22643496)
How do you always come up with this wonderful works, really you are brilliant my boss...
Very interesting.... You should certainly write more on this! Thank you for sharing :)
To be honest, I've had a life-long fascination with the Nazi's, so I might expand upon this some more.
excelent post! thank you!
I have an unpopular opinion but I do base it on my education in studying history. Things like monuments for instance in the U.S. there have been some removal of controversial ones especially from the Civil War era. Many people, but especially African Americans, feel these monuments are oppressive and give them trauma to see them. So I respect their feelings on it and certainly wouldn't deny those monuments could stir those feelings. My opinion is that the monuments should serve as a reminder not to repeat the past. I do not necessarily view them as icons of honor directly of the image represented or adulation. They serve to be like a marker that an event happened. How we choose to tell the story of the event in the current time is what matters. But all the same - the opportunity to tell that story should be present. Even if the image is offensive that in itself is a discussion point on WHY it is offensive and why the monument was built in the first place. At the time the person was revered but now we feel differently. Discussing feeling differently is an important lesson in understanding context and historical time flow and human actions and our evolution as a civilization.
Just my opinion. Thanks for the article John. How do you feel about it?
Some really good points there bud, I hadn't really thought about it from that perspective. I'd read somewhere that some of the statues were put up during the 1950s/60s as a result of the civil rights movement, although looking it up now, that seems to apply to only ~25% of the monuments. Your point of bringing up the discussion on why would still be applicable to that 25% too as the more recent monuments would still be part of history now. I guess the point of "just because you're offended, doesn't mean the object is offensive" is valid here.
I think with Asperger and AS, the act of phasing the name out had already begun anyway because of the confusing mess that autism diagnosis became. His contributions to the field shouldn't, and probably won't be ignored though. Sorry if this is a bit incoherent!
I understood you just fine! I think this topic is very thought provoking as it delves into symbolism. There's also a new movement among historians to re-examine the past through researching new sources that have arisen out of discovery. For instance one of my classmates did a paper on how Cortez, the explorer, really lied a lot in his memoirs that people held up as the truth for so long. Recently some writings of one of his captains surfaced that documented a very different course of events. Since these are primary sources one simply can't say well that is fake or not true but it certainly changes Cortez's story as far as history goes. In the end though even though Cortez is shown to have lied and be an asshole about a lot of things it doesn't discount the fact that he was in Mexico and defeated the Aztecs. That's what concerns me is this kind of... erasure of some figure from the past because they were villainous (sorry if that's sounds simplified). I see this a lot in genealogy research as well. People just have a strong aversion to avoid and cover up the "bad" even if it was true. We need it all in order to learn. Whew soap box! haha
I read this this other day and thought you might like to know:
Hey that's a great example thank you so much for sharing it with me. She does a great job with the narrative.
Absolutely, it's definitely a topic that needs discussing. I've noticed this recently, there's been a run of good documentaries re-examining events in recent history, including Hitler's death or escape from Germany (Hunting Hitler), the JFK assassination (JFK Declassified: Tracking Oswald), Charles Manson (Manson Speaks: Inside the Mind of a Madman) and so on. To be honest, Cortez and the conquistadors isn't a topic I know very much about, but I'll be looking into that this weekend I think.
I totally agree with you about the erasure of certain figures, and it's like you've already said, if we ignore or forget about these events and people, we'll be doomed to repeat the same mistakes. In the past it was the victors who wrote the history books, but now in the information age, hopefully the facts will instead speak for themselves.
You just planted 0.39 tree(s)!
Thanks to @johngreenfield
We have planted already 6217.51 trees
out of 1,000,000
Let's save and restore Abongphen Highland Forest
in Cameroonian village Kedjom-Keku!
Plant trees with @treeplanter and get paid for it!
My Steem Power = 18700.10
Thanks a lot!
@martin.mikes coordinator of @kedjom-keku
Apologize for the delay, been managing and speaking about Steem at the Steem Creators Conference in Las Vegas, NV all weekend. Expect to be within the the 24-48 hour upvote window in the next 48 hours.
As a friendly reminder, the upvote fee is $0.08 SBD ($0.081 for incognito). Current 300%+ upvote is now $0.24+ SBD.
That being said…
Investors who delegate SP to @thundercurator are entitled to 75% of @thundercurator income after curation. Get on-board early and grow with us!