General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: You're not going to like me for saying this, but I am going to say it anyway [View all]hifiguy
(33,688 posts)on the spectrum, I think you are correct. Prior to the 1990s there was Kanner's Autism and pretty much nothing else in the autism dictionary. Kanner's Autism is the most severe manifestation - the uncommunicative, sometimes violent kids who rock back and forth that gave rise to the stereotypes about autism.
Once Asperger's was brought to light by Dr. Lorna Wing in Britain during the 1990s the accepted notion became that autism was a spectrum and not a unitary condition. When I grew up in the 1960s and early 1970s I was just a weird kid, and I grew up to be a weird adult. I was misdiagnosed as borderline schizophrenic and possibly bipolar. I was neither. I was an odd, eccentric, and extremely bright kid who had problems with social interaction.
Getting my AS dx in 2005 was an enormous relief to me. There were others like me and it's the way I am wired, not some extrinsic failing on my part.