title: 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.
authors.affiliation: University of Chicago, IL 60637, USA. jkjacobs@uchicago.edu
authors.forename: Kurt
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jacobsen
mesh_terms: D001317:Austria; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000266:history*; D002648:Child; D002665:Child Psychiatry / Q000266:history*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D011057:Politics; D014481:United States