Book Review: “Asperger’s Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna” by Edith Sheffer
Håfa adai! Welcome to my review of Asperger’s Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna, by Edith Sheffer.
This book review consists of two parts: a brief summary of content followed by my personal takeaways. I may go into detail about some parts of the book, but I will leave out the greater nuance. I want to share my opinions of the book and encourage you to purchase a copy of your own.
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Summary of Asperger’s Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna
Hans Asperger, namesake of the now decommissioned diagnosis Asperger’s Syndrome, was a leading contributor in the research of “autistic psychopathy” in Nazi Vienna. After the Second World War, Hans Asperger continued his work in Austria on understanding the causes of the neurological disability that would become known as Autism Spectrum Disorder, gaining a reputation of compassionate advocacy for children with disabilities. But a review of the historical records reveal a version of reality very different from what Hans Asperger lead others to believe.
In Asperger’s Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna, Edit Sheffer paints a vivid picture of the horrific treatment of children with autism living under the Third Reich. Throughout the 12 years of the Third Reich, Nazi policies segregated people on the basis of race, religion, behavior, and physical condition. Those on the favorable sides of that segregation were selected for treatment and granted the right to live. Those on the unfavorable sides of that segregation were cruelly eliminated. And many times, it was Hans Asperger himself complicit in their murders.
Important Trigger Warning for Asperger’s Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna
Asperger’s Children heavily details the medical abuse and murder of children as well as the genocide of multiple communities. These topics are essential to the book’s thesis. If these are topics that cause you distress or discomfort in any way, then please make sure to take necessary steps to prepare and protect yourself before and after reading this book.
My Thoughts on Asperger’s Children: 4 stars
In Asperger’s Children, Edith Sheffer takes the reader through a heartbreaking reality check of who Asperger lead others to believe he was with who the historic records and survivors’ testimonies demonstrate he really was. Asperger’s Children was the December 2024 pick of the Bombastic Book Club. In the announcement for this month’s selection, I posed two discussion questions for the book club’s first non-fiction reading. I came up with these discussion questions after having read a majority of the book, reflecting how I was engaging with and internalizing the narrative of the book.
First, how should the dark history of scientific and medical research be discussed when acknowledging its role in modern-day diagnostic criteria? Edith Sheffer manages to cross the sticky web between acknowledging the war crimes committed by the Third Reich, Hans Asperger’s role in the Third Reich, the horrifying experiences of Asperger’s patients/victims, and how a Nazi-lead society created rigid milestones for an entire generation of children. This, in my opinion, adds an incredible depth of empathy to a terrifying topic in human history.
Throughout Asperger’s Children, Edith Sheffer makes sure that the reader learns about what children went through at the Am Spiegelgrund clinic in Vienna, both before and during Nazi occupation in Vienna. It would be one thing to tell the reader about what the documents say Asperger did, but that would not fully paint the picture of his crimes. By explicitly detailing what patients/victims went through at the clinic, Sheffer helps the reader understand the gravity of Hans Asperger’s crimes. Through policies surrounding “curative education” at the Am Spiegelgrund clinic, Asperger and the other doctors and nurses present effectively used the laws of a grossly sick society to decide whether the child in front of them could be rehabilitated or eliminated.
Second, if a diagnosis is to be named after a person instead of after how the diagnosis presents, should there be a vetting process for that individual? Asperger’s name was first associated with “Asperger’s Syndrome” by English psychiatrist Lorna Wing in her 1981 publication, “Asperger’s syndrome: a clinical account”, in the journal Psychological Medicine. Asperger’s Syndrome was included as a diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-4), published in 1994, but removed from the DSM’s fifth edition (DSM-5) published in 2013. This change was due to greater understandings of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) leading experts to recognize that “Asperger’s Syndrome” was apart of the ASD spectrum.
According to Edith Sheffer, Lorna Wing admitted to her family in her final days that associating Hans Asperger’s name with the diagnosis was on of her greatest regrets. But reading more about her in preparation of this book review caused a lot of confusion for me. I could have misinterpreted the text, but Edith Sheffer’s mention of Lorna Wing left me with the impression that Wing was completely unaware of Asperger’s involvement with the Third Reich. Yet, when contacted by the DSM committee inquiring about why Asperger’s name should be included in the diagnosis and if she was aware of the allegations of Asperger’s actions in Nazi Vienna since she had actually met the man, she defended Asperger! I would have appreciated a bit more material in the book discussing Lorna Wing, but I can understand that the focus of the book was on Hans Asperger and not Asperger’s Syndrome, per se.
I give Asperger’s Children 4 out of 5 stars. This was a difficult book to read through, I will not make it seem otherwise. That difficulty was entirely due to the heaviness of the topic and not because of Edith Sheffer’s writing. I greatly appreciated the way Edith Sheffer alternated between the documentary record of Hans Asperger’s life and actions, the policies of the Am Spiegelgrund clinic in pre-Nazi and Nazi-occupied Vienna, and the accounts of the patients/victims of the clinic before and during the Third Reich. She made a point to include Asperger’s victims while exposing him. Asperger’s Children is a dark study of the human cost when a child’s worth is decided by the standards of a society instead of by the virtue of the individual reminder.
Dångkulo' na' saina ma'åse'! Thank you so much for reading my review of Asperger’s Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna by Edith Sheffer.
Rating Cheat Sheet
4.75 - 5.00 stars: Everyone should read this book! (If you’re into that sort of thing.)
4.00 - 4.50 stars: I appreciated many aspects of this book. I recommend it!
3.00 - 3.75 stars: I liked some aspects of this book. I won’t revisit it, but someone else might really like it.
2.00 - 2.75 stars: There were some things I appreciated about this book, but I do not recommend it.
0.25 - 1.75 stars: I do not recommend this book. I did not enjoy or appreciate the experience of it.
Post Date: 26 December 2024
Published: 1 May 2018
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company
