{"id":862,"date":"2018-04-29T04:04:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-29T04:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drmirkin.com\/2018\/04\/29\/was-hans-asperger-a-nazi\/"},"modified":"2018-04-29T04:04:00","modified_gmt":"2018-04-29T04:04:00","slug":"was-hans-asperger-a-nazi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/drmirkin.com\/?p=862","title":{"rendered":"Was Hans Asperger a Nazi?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\"hansA recently-published medical journal article claims that Hans Asperger, an Austrian pediatrician after whom Asperger’s syndrome is named, was involved in the Nazi euthanasia program to sterilize or kill retarded, emotionally-disturbed and sick children in the 1930's and 40s (Molecular Autism,<\/em> April 19, 2018).  If this is true, he certainly should not continue to have the honor of having the medical syndrome named after him.  <\/div>\n
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\n\tOne of the greatest tributes a physician can receive is to have a medical condition named after him, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Down’s syndrome, Hodgkin’s disease, Dupuytren’s contracture and so forth.  When I was resident, I was fortunate to have shared patients with Dr. Mike Leventhal and remember how all the residents in training treated him with the greatest reverence because he was the Leventhal of Stein-Leventhal syndrome, also called polycystic ovary syndrome. I also saw Fuller Albright, who discovered Albright's syndrome, a condition characterized by abnormal scar-like tissue in bones.  Having a syndrome named after you is such a great honor that it should not be granted to any person who lies when he takes the Hippocratic oath that says “First, do no harm”.<\/div>\n
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\n\tAsperger's Syndrome<\/strong><\/div>\n
\n\tAsperger's Syndrome usually describes a person who has difficulty socializing with other people, even though his ability to learn and reason may be normal, superior, or even at the genius level.  Such children have difficulty making friends, may try to dominate every conversation, are often clumsy and uncoordinated, display little empathy for other people and have difficulty communicating with their parents.  These symptoms usually continue into adulthood.  In spite of their handicaps, they may be so smart that they can be incredibly successful as adults.<\/div>\n
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\n\tHans Asperger was born in Austria-Hungary on February 18, 1906 and as a child, he had many of the symptoms that he described in the  syndrome that was named after him. He was lonely and had difficulty making friends, but he read poetry and was a very good student. He was graduated from the University of Vienna Medical School in 1931.  At age 37 (1943), he wrote a paper based on his experience with 400 children who had difficulty functioning in school and society, even though some of them were very smart (Arch Psychiatr Nervenkr<\/em>, 1944;117:76–136).  However, his paper failed to give credit to Russian neurologist, Grunya Sukhareva, who described most of the same signs and symptoms seventeen years earlier (1926).  Since he did not write his paper in English, his work did not become widely known until 1981, one year after his death, when British researcher Lorna Wing named the syndrome after him in her published paper, "Asperger’s syndrome: a clinical account" (Psychol Med<\/em>,  Feb, 1981;11(1):115-29). <\/div>\n
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