Diagnostic politics: the curious case of Kanner's syndrome

Abstract

The consensus US (not European) narrative regarding diagnosis and aetiology of autism posits that misguided 'parent-blaming' psychogenic causes were supplanted due to solid research proving the presence of organic causes.Yet, upon scrutiny, it is questionable that the high-functioning, often high-IQ minority--about 15% of those labelled autistic--whose condition Kanner in 1943 first dubbed 'infantile autism' were absorbed into the 'autistic spectrum' on the basis of scientific evidence. Extra-scientific factors must be addressed in order to understand the status of the category today.