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Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders pp 1–2Cite as

Autism

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Synonyms

Autistic

Definition

The term “autism” (or autistic) has had several uses in psychiatry. Originally introduced by Bleuler to describe self-centered thinking in schizophrenia, he modified the term from the Greek word for self. In the 1930s, the first child psychiatrist, Leo Kanner, became aware of a group of children who had unusual patterns of social engagement and learning. He published his first 11 cases in 1943 using the term “early infantile autism” to emphasize the apparent congenital lack of social engagement which he believed to be one of the two cardinal features of the disorder (the other being insistence on sameness/resistance to change). Although children with features suggestive of autism had been described for centuries (likely including some feral children like Victor the Wild Boy in France), Kanner was the first to describe the syndrome in detail. Interestingly, independent of Kanner’s work, the Austrian medical student Hans Asperger also used the term in his...

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References and Reading

  • Asperger, H. (1944). Die “autistichen Psychopathen” im Kindersalter. Archive fur psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten, 117, 76–136.

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  • Bleuler, E. (1911). Dementia praecox oder Gruppe der Schizophrenien (J. Zinkin, Trans.). New York: International Universities Press.

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  • Kanner, L. (1943). Autistic disturbances of affective contact. Nervous Child, 2, 217–250.

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  • Kanner, L. (1973). The birth of early infantile autism. Journal of Autism & Childhood Schizophrenia, 3(2), 93–95.

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  • Rutter, M. (1972). Childhood schizophrenia reconsidered. Journal of Autism & Childhood Schizophrenia, 2(4), 315–337.

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  • Volkmar, F. R., & Klin, A. (2005). Issues in the classification of autism and related conditions. In F. R. Volkmar, A. Klin, R. Paul, & D. J. Cohen (Eds.), Handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders (Vol. 1, 3rd ed., pp. 5–41). Hoboken: Wiley.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Child Study Center, Irving B. Harris Professor of Child Psychiatry, Pediatrics and Psychology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    Fred R. Volkmar

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  1. Fred R. Volkmar
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Correspondence to Fred R. Volkmar .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Yale Child Study Center, New Haven, CT, USA

    Fred R. Volkmar

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Volkmar, F.R. (2020). Autism. In: Volkmar, F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_1366-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_1366-3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-6435-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6435-8

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