56 What is Autism?
apparent in children, and correctly made the assertion that autism differs from
schizophrenia because the latter has its onset later in life, whereas autism
begins with infants. While his views differed from those of Asperger, there are
key similarities in their views: both Asperger and Kanner observed a troubling
paucity of emotional affection and an obsession with routine and predictabil-
ity, characteristics of those on the ASD spectrum. They also both observed an
unsettling preoccupation with objects that led to an exclusion of interest in
social interactions with people. Still, the two scientists interpreted the same
data from different perspectives. Kanner thought he had discovered a condi-
tion that could be precisely diagnosed and declared it to be rare. Asperger, on
the other hand, saw the problem as spectral, that is existing along a spectrum,
and he correctly perceived that autism was a rather uncommon problem in
infants, that rarely occurred.
Kanner wrote in 1943: “Autism is not a disease (or disorder), it is a Behavioral
Constellation” [18].
Susie, the daughter of English psychiatrist Lorna Wing, proved to be the
catalyst that helped to revive Asperger’s correct views of autism as part of a
syndrome. Wing, who helped to reverse the more inflexible diagnostic patterns
encouraged by Kanner, realized that a broadened diagnostic potential involved
the opening of a veritable Pandora’s box. The question arose as to whether the
number suffering from autism had actually increased or whether the increased
numbers were simply due to changes in diagnostic decision making. With the
expansion of the conditions allowed on the autism spectrum and with the
broadening and sharpening of diagnoses of the attendant conditions, there has
been a large increase in the number of children placed on the spectrum through
diagnosis [16].
Misinformation has unfortunately accompanied this rise in interest and
diagnosis, including the information that autism is the offshoot of tainted
vaccines. A widely disseminated article from the prestigious journal The
Lancet linked vaccinations to the onset of autism. Although this research was
later renounced by the journal and many claimed that it was fraudulent, new
findings support the view that thimerosal (an organic mercury) used in many
vaccine appears to have links to ASD and increases the risk of ASD (see
Chapter 9 for details). The confluence of public hesitancy about the growing
use of chemical agents to treat human conditions, concerns about the size of
the government, and suspicions about big medicine combined to provide
fertile ground for the popularity of The Lancet article that was later retracted.
A uniform and widespread vaccination program can virtually wipe out a dis-
ease, promoting so called herd immunity, and breaches in vaccination uni-
formity can provide a foot in the door to diseases that otherwise would have
no to hold. Unfounded paranoia about immunization not only puts unvac-
cinated children at risk but also puts others in danger, a situation that is par-
ticularly hazardous for those who due to serious health challenges already