How history forgot the woman who defined autism
Grunya Sukhareva characterized autism nearly two decades before Austrian doctors Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger. So why did the latter get all the credit?
If you’re an autistic self-advocate, have you ever heard of Dr. Sukhareva? Grunya Efimovna Sukhareva (1891-1981) was a Soviet child psychiatrist who worked in a Moscow clinic. She was the first to publish a detailed description of autistic traits (symptoms) in 1925. Her paper, published first in Russian then a year later in German, wasn't published in English until 1996.
“Basically, she described the criteria in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5),” says Irina Manouilenko, a psychiatrist who runs a clinic in Stockholm, Sweden. Manouilenko translated Sukhareva’s original descriptions from Russian to English in 2013 and then compared them with the diagnostic criteria described in the DSM-5. The similarities between the two left Manouilenko in awe. “When you start looking at it all systematically, it’s very impressive,” she says.
Are you curious about Dr. Sukhareva now?
Continue reading about her and her fascinating story … including why she was likely not recognized in the West for her work … over at Spectrum News. (link)