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Autism History

The future of autism looks bright! Industries and organizations are beginning to recognize to enormous power of having a neuro-diverse team of hyper-focused thinkers and workers. In the coming decades we are likely to soon see a true "Decade of Autism" before the century is out. As our community enjoys this time of bounty and celebrates our acceptance into society, it is important to remember that this is a recent turn of events - in only the most fortunate of regions - it is important to remember the historical context in which the autism community now finds itself.

An image of Archimedes, Hedy Lamarr, Temple Grandin, Nikolai Tesla, Abed Nadir

(Portraits shown left to right: Archimedes of Syracuse, Nikolai Tesla, Hedy Lamarr, Temple Grandin, Abed Nadir - photos sourced from the websites linked in each name)

2000's - Popular Culture

In recent memory - among many shows that even hold up to "the scrutiny of 2018" - as it's sometimes called; we see many prominent characters and MAIN characters who are implied or explicitly identified as on the autism spectrum. Such fan favorites as Sheldon Cooper (Big Bang Theory), and Amelia Bones (Bones), and Abed Nadir (Community) all give subtle (and not-so-subtle) nods to their autistic tendencies and possible diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Conditions.

These pop-culture icons have given many young aspies and autistics (to use the identity-first language preferred by this author) the role models and social scripts they've needed to fill the niche of smart-and-sometimes-awkward-friend of their social group.

These characters likely benefitted (fictionally growing up in their fictional worlds) from changes to the educational and political landscape of the late-twentieth century - without which the autism community would be unlikely to have progressed so far in so few generations.

1960's to 1990's - Legislation and the State (USA - specifically)

Prior to the early 2000's, pop-cultural depiction of autistic characters was sparse at best. We might stretch our list to include Steve Urkel (Family Matters) who was quite more cartoonish than any of the characters previously mentioned. Steve Urkel was a extremely brainy (read smart) and extremely socially awkward character on the show - really more of an autism-based clown than an actual autistic character. It was a good show overall - and hindsight is 2020, but let's be forgiving and remember it was the best they could do at the time.

Another prominent example that comes to mind is that of Raymond Babbit (Rain Man) which gives a detrimental (though, heartbreakingly accurate at times) depiction of autism in the latter half of the twentieth century.

It was a bleak chapter in the history of autism. A chapter which continues to echo even today. Prior to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 - in the USA, as well as similar legislation in other countries around the same time - as well as other legislative and funding changes to places like group homes and psychiatric care facilities - people on the autism spectrum would commonly be shut away in facilities designed to be a life-long residence (without any real semblance of a fulfilled human life) for anyone who might struggle to function 'normally' from childhood. And even those who were merely shut away, could often be considered the lucky ones.

1800's and 1900's - Recent Historical Figures in the New Modern Age

Rapid societal changes, new industrialization, population booms in urban centers, and two world-wide military conflicts left little room for the fledgling science of Psychology to do little more than identify and classify the symptoms of autism, as well as to identify a bleak prognosis based on observations of individuals who never had anything we might call "early, evidence-based interventions".

There were exceptions though - some historical figures who are suspected to have been on the autism spectrum.

Albert Einstein is perhaps the most well known suspected Aspie through recent history - though is likely most physicists and mathematicians at the time had a little bit of autism in them all. Others such as famed Actress/Scientist Heddy Lamar were also, in hindsight suspected of fitting the diagnosis for the autism spectrum. Madame Curie who could be argued to have saved more lives than Ghengis Khan took, as well as Nicolai Tesla - the man who invented the twentieth century - were both suspected to be on the autism spectrum.

1500 BC through 1500 CE - Antiquity to the Modern Era

Through those early decades of the Modern Age, and all the way back to antiquity we have records of historical figures who exhibit many autistic characteristics.

Five centuries ago, Leonardo Da Vinci - the son of a noble and a peasant - was widely renowned for his artistic capacity and his mechanical understanding (autistic traits), and was also locally known for his struggle to manage his time, to adhere to hygiene and social norms, and his difficulty in staying on one task (not for lack of attention, but for an excess of attention on many different things) - also an autistic trait. A similar character profile from the pages of history can be found over a millennium earlier in Archimedes - a Greek inventor living in Roman Egypt - who routinely refused to bathe because he was too busy thinking about math!

Who among us hasn't had that problem! Am-I-rite?

Ancient World

Furthermore it's likely that these prominent figures are not the only autistics we can imagine of the past. For prince, inventor, scholar and every name we know throughout history there are a thousand peasants whose stories we will never hear, but who live on in us all - who walk the bricks they've laid and harvest the seeds they've sowed. Autistics too are likely to have been among these "small folk" of history - like the fictional character Lenny in "Of Mice and Men" - in times of old autistics were likely farm hands and soldiers, peasants, and even the occasional shop keeper.

How do I know?

The short answer is I don't.

But call it an educated guess that autism is far older than the diagnosis. As I often tell young people and families who are struggling with the new identity that comes along with an autism diagnosis: think of yourself or an aspie or autistic person you know. Now think of the ancient world. Who else but us would have looked at the sky, letting our young eyes wander away from the faces sitting around the campfire; who else would have noticed a few of the lights in the sky moving slightly over the course of weeks and months and years. Who else would notice that a broken piece of rock (flint) slightly resembles the dangerous part of a lion (claws), which can then be tied to a stick (spear). Who else would have paused, along the path of our hunter-gatherer migration trails, to notice an unusually healthy food plant growing in the same spot we dropped an unusually large seed one year ago. Who else would notice and remember something like that?

Autism has been with us since the beginning. Neurodiversity has shaped civilizations - raising up some, sustaining others, and tearing some apart.

Probably the same type of neurodiversity that would forego social norms to focus more on math. Probably the same neuro-diverse mind who would thousands of clock parts could be assembled to decode messages (Alan Turing). Probably the same type of person who would notice the math of physics doesn't check out when objects move very fast (Albert Einstein).

The history of autism is the history of all humanity... perhaps with a little less eye contact.

Jan 2, 2020 - Jacob Stephens