ASPERGER'S OR AUTISM?

When I was in Year Twelve at school, 28 years ago, there was an exchange student from Germany in Year Eleven whose name was Flora Frick. Also, at the time I was at school, there was a footballer with my namesake and the same smart Alec kid who said to me, "Imagine if you had a bump on the head and you changed," said, "But he's different to you, he plays football." My internal response was, "So blooming what?" I know people who are called Paul Hogan but they're not all Crocodile Dundee. As a keen history student, and one who was reading political biographies during the Year Ten into Eleven holidays and who wanted, wait for it, A Chronicle Of The Twentieth Century for Christmas when I was 15, I knew who Wilhelm Frick was, but unlike lightheartedly asking a woman called Wendy Collins if she was related to Phil, I knew not to say to Flora, "You're not descended from Wilhelm, are you?" As, a) she might not have been, and b) Wilhelm Frick was hanged as a major war criminal on October 16, 1946, and she may have been uncomfortable about it.

So, now I hear people talk about Asperger's and do they prefer Asperger's or autism. Some of the arguments that I have heard put forward are, "I don't want to use a man's name," or, "I have read about Hans Asperger and I don't like what he did."

So, what do I personally think? On the one hand, I am pleased that the definition of autism has broadened from the narrow version, merely encompassing intellectual disability, from what Kanner described it, but that doesn't excuse him being something of a Nazi sympathiser. He might not have been in the same league as Mengele, who didn't receive the hangman's noose, but spent his whole life looking over his shoulder and developed a hairball in his stomach from anxiously chewing his thick moustache. On the other hand, however, the fact that Asperger's research was kept secret until 1981 and not given much credence until Professor Lorna Wing translated his papers, prevented me from having an easier life. Part of me wishes that, when, in Year Two, my teacher had called my mother up to school with concerns about me, my mother could have taken me to the doctor who could have said, "Hmm, no, I don't think it's muscular dystrophy, but I was reading something recently by an English paediatrician about a form of autism. What I'll do is (checks watch), it's five o clock in the morning in England, now, so, when I go home tonight, I'll place a call through to England to speak to Professor Wing and get you to come back in a few days." Then, a few days later, gone back and heard, "I've got some good news and I've got some bad news. The good news is, I've spoken to Professor Wing, and she thinks it could be autism, the bad news is, you'll have to go to England. But, I'm planning a holiday to England in a few months time, so what I can do is arrange for you to meet me in England and we'll go and see Professor Wing and I'll make the case for you. I might need a referral from an English doctor, but I can organise that, too." And I would have gotten educational supports from a younger age.

As well as having autism, I have Hashimoto's thyroiditis, which, ironically, I'm kind of proud of, as Japan is one of my special interests, but I would have said to someone, if I was nearly 65 and had been diagnosed at 23 rather than 43, who had been anti-Japanese, "It's named after the Japanese physician who was the first to describe it, it doesn't mean you're a Japanese sympathiser from the war. And it doesn't mean you need to take Japanese medicine." I remember, 22 years ago, seeing a Chinese-Malaysian doctor, who, in 1968, was a young resident at a country hospital who was the only doctor on duty one night, when a man came in with a cut hand. The man racially abused the doctor and the doctor said to the nurse, "He'll be back. He won't find a doctor at this time of night." Sure enough, he was, and he apologised, but the doctor said, "Okay, but if you were sorry, you wouldn't have said it in the first place." So, having a condition named after a Japanese doctor doesn't make you part Japanese, even if you were a war veteran who had a Holden Kingswood or Ford Falcon all your driving life, a Pye stereo and TV and wouldn't abide any Japanese crockery.

I have no personal qualms about being labelled Asperger's or autistic, what I do object to is being given a functioning label or people who are Aspie supremacists. How I am functioning depends upon my environment. If I am in a calm environment, without too much noise, I can function okay. If I have to go somewhere different and the signage is not clear, I can get lost. As I have mentioned before, I am more comfortable driving my father's Ford Falcon now that I know it has a set of KYB shock absorbers on it, okay, a rear set isn't as good as front and rear, but at least it has a set, and a set is better than none. So, I can drive a Falcon with KYB shocks.

Having said that, I do prefer the term autism, for the simple reason that it is encompassing. Asperger's seems to have a set criteria. If I use the example of my IgA Nephropathy, some people with the condition will experience mild kidney disease, some will lose some kidney function and some will end up on dialysis or need a transplant. If someone with IgA Nephropathy is healthy, their kidney function may be stable, whereas, if they've had a cold, flu or gastro, they may have blood in their urine that may settle down after a few weeks. So, to view an autistic person is a bit like viewing an IgA Nephropathy patient who is not on dialysis. While they're healthy, their kidney function may be good (just like when an autistic person is in a calm environment) whereas following an illness, their kidney function may drop a bit (just like when an autistic person is in a bad environment).

So, Asperger's or autism, person with autism or autistic person, the choice is the individual's but above all else, respect the individual, AND, remember, just because a person self-identifies one way doesn't automatically mean you can introduce them that way. (That is, if a person says, "My name is John/Jane, and I'm autistic," don't automatically introduce them to someone else as, "This is my autistic friend, John/Jane.") Respect is the key.