Autism and Asperger Syndrome

• List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; 1. Asperger and his syndrome; 2. 'Autistic psychopathy' in childhood; 3. The relationship between Asperger's syndrome and Kanner's autism; 4. Clinical and neurobiological aspects of Asperger syndrome in six family studies; 5. Asperger syndrome in adulthood; 6. Living with Asperger's syndrome; 7. The autobiographical writings of three Asperger syndrome adults: problems of interpretation and implications for theory; Name index; Subject index.

'Our concept of autism, all too often, is one of grossly-disabled, poorly-functioning children - the classical syndrome described by Kanner. This concept needs to be expanded, for there are also children and especially adults who have good language and intellectual skills, who can sometimes, indeed, manage to pass as 'normal', and yet are still fundamentally autistic. This higher form of autism was described nearly fifty years ago by Asperger, but is still not accorded the recognition it deserves. In this very scholarly but also highly-readable volume, Uta Frith not only provides the first-ever translation into English of Asperger's paper, but has brought together a variety of fascinating phenomenological and narrative accounts, of the syndrome and its varied presentations, accounts which are by no means entirely negative, for they show how much adaptation and learning and personal development is possible if there is a sensitive understanding of the precise problems involved. Autism and Asperger Syndrome is an invaluable book, not only for researchers, therapists and clinicians, but for parents and teachers, for everyone concerned with understanding autism, and seeing its clinical and its human dimension too.' Oliver Sacks