Tag Archives: psychiatry history

The Spectrum Problem after The Question of Usefulness

Part 4 of a seven-part series asking whether the modern autism spectrum accurately describes the diversity of neurodivergent cognition. Has diagnostic simplification obscured meaningful neurological differences? Autism is now defined as a single spectrum in modern psychiatric manuals, replacing earlier distinctions such as Asperger’s syndrome. While this simplified diagnosis, it also collapsed multiple neurological profiles into one category. This article examines whether the spectrum model accurately reflects autistic diversity or obscures meaningful differences in cognition, support needs, and lived experience.

Continue reading

Asperger’s Syndrome and the Question of Usefulness

Part 1 of a seven-part series examining how societies understand neurodivergent minds through the lens of usefulness. The uneasy history of a diagnosis born in Nazi-era Vienna. Hans Asperger first described a group of intellectually capable but socially atypical children in Nazi-era Vienna. Later research has shown his work occurred within a medical system shaped by eugenics and the classification of human usefulness. This article examines the difficult history of the Asperger’s diagnosis, the children it helped protect, those it did not, and the lasting implications for how autism is understood today.

Continue reading