Comments on: For people who claim we appeared in the thirties.

By: Ballastexistenz » Blog Archive » For people who think counting autistic people in the past is easy.

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 18:44:16 +0000

[…] I’ve written before about descriptions of autism before autism was known about, in old documents about various kinds of “idiots” and “imbeciles“. Here is a little comment about children diagnosed as both emotionally disturbed and deaf at a time when hearing tests weren’t all that reliable, from someone who was there at the time and now thinks these children were autistic: I was supported by this National Institutes of Health training program for a fourth year during which I attended pediatric neurology ward rounds with Dr Jim Hamill or Dr Carter and Dr Carter’s Wednesday morning outpatient rounds for children with cerebral palsy and those with speech and hearing disorders. The latter intrigued me, as what ailed thesenonverbal children was not obvious. (I found out later that behavioral audiology was unreliable at diagnosing the severity of hearing losses in very young children, and, in retrospect, that autism would no doubt have been the correct diagnosis in some puzzling “emotionally disturbed” mute children.) […]

By: Ettina

Ettina — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 15:10:00 +0000

And that many autistics were probably killed or just hidden away. And that the diagnosis of childhood schizophrenia has dramatically reduced in incidence.
Odd how those eugenicist types assume they’re the best, when in evolutionary terms, the best are the so called “high grades” or “morons” who are having so many kids.

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 16:39:00 +0000

In terms of Autistic people “appearing” in the 1930’s, likely one factor was probably an appallingly high childhood mortality rate earlier to this time period. First is the potential for malnourishment due to food issues in an era with no knowledge of vitamins (based on my son’s eating habits I am sure he would have rickets or scurvy in an era before vitamins were added to most processed food). Inadequate nutrition would lead to heightened suceptibility to disease. Combine this with a much more dangerous environment for potential accidents and you have a very difficult world for an autisic child to survive in even given the best of intentions from his or her caregivers.

By: SquareGirl

SquareGirl — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 03:29:00 +0000

I saw a progam on this about a year ago…they tested people and considered those with lower IQ’s to be “imbeciles” and “morons” who were institutionalized and taught the kindergarten curriculum year after year. Some were used to test radioactive oatmeal on. Is this correct? I was appaled, yet empowered to raise my voice for those of us who don’t fit into societies comfortable “norm”.

By: ballastexistenz

ballastexistenz — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 16:05:00 +0000

What other life?

By: Bronwyn G

Bronwyn G — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 20:59:00 +0000

Are you an elf in your other life?

By: ballastexistenz

ballastexistenz — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 11:31:00 +0000

I'm one of them and have been for some time. Although changelings were not only autistic people, they were a number of kinds of disabled people.

By: M

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 09:38:00 +0000

There are some people who have speculated that stories of ‘changelings’ are of people with autism. Child is stolen from crib and replaced – child with autism seems ‘normal’ at the age when they’re in the crib, and ‘not normal’ later. Since ‘changelings’ are not human, this could be used as a justification for abuse/infanticide.

By: Bronwyn G

Bronwyn G — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 05:29:00 +0000

Oh, get off the planet.

Not many autistic people are cruel, even if they are ‘low grade defectives’.

By: ballastexistenz

ballastexistenz — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 21:22:00 +0000

It depends. I usually find it while looking for something else. I've long been interested in the history of the eugenics movement, American and worldwide, and I found that particular thing in the eugenics archive. I have found at least one description in Kraepelin's work on "dementia praecox" (the diagnosis that predated the equally nebulous "schizophrenia", under which autism used to fall and some of the criteria for which I think have been based partly on autistic people, because back then they didn't separate autistic people from "schizophrenic" or "feeble-minded" people), that sounded like it could have just as easily been a grossly misinterpreted autistic person who started having more trouble with some things at puberty (a relatively common pattern). I don't generally go looking, I just find it when I'm looking for something else. Little reminders that if my family history weren't enough to convince me, this stuff would be.