mentally retarded. Kanner observed that these children often demonstrated capabilities that showed that they were not merely slow learners, yet they didn't fit the patterns of emotionally disturbed children. The assumption therefore was that the familial environment being hostile was the cause of the childs refusal to become engaged. Professionals labeled this concept the refrigerator mother. Thus he invented a new category, which he called Early Infantile Autism, which has since sometimes been called Kanner's Syndrome. Other terms that have been applied to what we now call "autism" are: Childhood schizophrenia, infantile autism, Aspergers Syndrome, Kanner's Syndrome. Probably lots of autistic people used to be termed retarded, or schizophrenic, though obviously those terms (as then used) were not as specific as our current "autism" label. Hans Asperger essentially made the same discoveries at the same time, independently of Kanner, but the patients he identified all had speech, so the term Asperger's Syndrome or Asperger Syndrome is often used to label autistic people who have speech. (Bettleheim, 1994). Kanner was the original one to name the disease. But before Kanner incorporated it into his label, the word "autism" already had a meaning: "escape from reality" (coined by Eugen Bleuler in 1912, who had already coined the term "schizophrenia"). Kanner borrowed Bleuler's term either because Kanner indeed believed the children were trying to escape from reality, or he felt that whatever was going on, the children gave that impression. Today, one hears the word autism in the context of Kanner's syndrome much more often than one hears it used with Bleuler's original meaning, and someone who regularly deals with Kanner's syndrome might misunderstand when the word is used in its original sense. (Bettleheim, 1994). For example, if a psychologist says "I sense some autism in this patient," they could be using established terminology to say t...
