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Asperger Didn’t “Discover” Autism
A woman named Dr. Grunya Sukhareva published her own research on autism in 1925
Dr. Grunya Sukhareva
Dr. Hans Asperger and Dr. Leo Kanner were not the first to identify, study, research, or publish articles about autism. Dr. Grunya Sukhareva, a renowned Russian child and adolescent psychiatrist, published articles in 1925 and 1926 which contain the first academic description of autism in young male and female patients. Being a woman in the 1920s — however well-qualified and educated — likely had much to do with Asperger’s (and other’s) willingness to disregard, and then take credit, for her work.
Sukhareva’s work not only provided a clinical description of what we now recognize as autism before male colleagues Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger, her research also delved into the existence of gender differences in Autistic presentation.
Turns out Asperger didn’t just assist the German nazis in carrying out their eugenics and euthanasia programs. He also did this (in part) by stealing, twisting, misrepresenting, and misusing Dr. Grunya Sukhareva’s work for his own personal and professional gain.
Dr. Grunya Sukhareva described the following “impairments” in what was then called a “schizoid personality disorder of childhood”:
