Kanner, in 1943, and Asperger, in 1944, published papers that have been considered the first descriptions of autism. Kanner is acknowledged as having been the first to recognise this condition, while Asperger is attributed with the identification of a milder form of autism which has been denominated Asperger's syndrome. Kanner's paper played an important role in the development of the conceptualisation of autism due to its being published in the United States, where it became popular in the field of child psychiatry. In contrast, Asperger's work, written in German during the period dominated by Nazism, was practically ignored until almost four decades later. A review of the historical data, mostly collected by Silberman, reveals that Kanner had first-hand knowledge of the work on autism that Asperger had begun ten years earlier. Moreover, on re-reading and analysing the pioneering publications it becomes clear that the contributions made by Asperger are still fully valid today, to the point of having intuited a complex polygenic aetiology and that it would fit in perfectly with autism spectrum disorder in the DSM-5.
Title: Deconstruyendo a Kanner.
Kanner, en 1943, y Asperger, en 1944, publicaron sendos articulos que se han considerado las primeras descripciones del autismo. A Kanner se le atribuye el merito de haber sido el primero en reconocer dicha entidad y a Asperger se le asigna la identificacion de una forma de autismo, mas leve, que se ha denominado sindrome de Asperger. La publicacion de Kanner tuvo una relevancia importante en el desarrollo de la conceptualizacion del autismo por el hecho de haberse editado en Estados Unidos, donde alcanzo una gran difusion en el campo de la psiquiatria infantil. Por el contrario, el trabajo de Asperger, escrito en aleman durante la epoca del nazismo, fue practicamente ignorado hasta pasadas casi cuatro decadas. La recopilacion de datos historicos, en gran parte recogidos por Silberman, revela que Kanner conocia de primera mano el trabajo sobre el autismo que Asperger habia iniciado diez años antes. Por otro lado, una relectura y analisis de las publicaciones pioneras pone en evidencia que las aportaciones de Asperger son plenamente vigentes, hasta el punto de haber intuido una etiologia poligenica compleja y de encajar plenamente con el trastorno del espectro autista del DSM-5.