Lakhasly

The term "autism" was coined by the German psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler in 1908 to describe some of the symptoms (e.g., being withdrawn or aloof and oblivious to the surroundings) of patients with schizophre- nia. The word autism comes from the Greek word "autos" referring to self, which may encapsulate the increased focus on oneself, often observed in children and adults with autism.

The term “autism” was coined by the German psychiatrist Eugen
Bleuler in 1908 to describe some of the symptoms (e.g., being withdrawn
or aloof and oblivious to the surroundings) of patients with schizophre-
nia. The word autism comes from the Greek word “autos” referring to self,
which may encapsulate the increased focus on oneself, often observed in
children and adults with autism. In 1943, Leo Kanner (a psychiatrist at the
Johns Hopkins University), in the first official publication of a collection
of case studies on autism, documented the symptoms of autism as “au-
tistic disturbances of affective contact.” Since then, the conceptualization
of autism as a disorder has gone through many levels of revisions. In this
chapter, we attempt to examine the history and evolution of the definition
and characterization of autism over last several decades and the impact of
it on how the disorder is perceived by families and professionals.