Evans Bonnie
King's College London, UK.
Hist Human Sci. 2013 Jul;26(3):3-31. doi: 10.1177/0952695113484320.
This article argues that the meaning of the word 'autism' experienced a radical shift in the early 1960s in Britain which was contemporaneous with a growth in epidemiological and statistical studies in child psychiatry. The first part of the article explores how 'autism' was used as a category to describe hallucinations and unconscious fantasy life in infants through the work of significant child psychologists and psychoanalysts such as Jean Piaget, Lauretta Bender, Leo Kanner and Elwyn James Anthony. Theories of autism were then associated both with schizophrenia in adults and with psychoanalytic styles of reasoning. The closure of institutions for 'mental defectives' and the growth in speech therapy services in the 1960s and 1970s encouraged new models for understanding autism in infants and children. The second half of the article explores how researchers such as Victor Lotter and Michael Rutter used the category of autism to reconceptualize psychological development in infants and children via epidemiological studies. These historical changes have influenced the form and function of later research into autism and related conditions.
本文认为，“自闭症”一词的含义在20世纪60年代初于英国经历了根本性转变，这与儿童精神病学中流行病学和统计研究的发展同步。文章第一部分探讨了通过让·皮亚杰、洛雷塔·本德、利奥·坎纳和埃尔温·詹姆斯·安东尼等重要儿童心理学家和精神分析学家的工作，“自闭症”是如何被用作描述婴儿幻觉和无意识幻想生活的一个类别。自闭症理论随后既与成人精神分裂症相关，也与精神分析推理方式相关。20世纪60年代和70年代“智力缺陷者”机构的关闭以及言语治疗服务的增加，促使人们形成了理解婴幼儿自闭症的新模式。文章后半部分探讨了维克托·洛特和迈克尔·鲁特等研究人员如何通过流行病学研究，利用自闭症类别重新构想婴幼儿的心理发展。这些历史变化影响了后来对自闭症及相关病症研究的形式和功能。
