I Had Asperger Syndrome. Briefly. - NYTimes.com

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I Had Asperger Syndrome. Briefly.

By BENJAMIN NUGENT

Manchester, N.H.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/opinion/i-had-asperger-syndrome-briefly.html

FOR a brief, heady period in the history of autism spectrum diagnosis,

in the late '90s, I had Asperger syndrome.

There's an educational video from that time, called " Understanding

Asperger's, " in which I appear. I am the affected 20-year-old in the

wannabe-hipster vintage polo shirt talking about how keen his

understanding of literature is and how misunderstood he was in fifth

grade. The film was a research project directed by my mother, a

psychology professor and Asperger specialist, and another expert in her

department. It presents me as a young man living a full, meaningful

life, despite his mental abnormality.

" Understanding Asperger's " was no act of fraud. Both my mother and her

colleague believed I met the diagnostic criteria laid out in the

American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of

Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition. The manual, still the authoritative

text for American therapists, hospitals and insurers, listed the

symptoms exhibited by people with Asperger disorder, and, when I was 17,

I was judged to fit the bill....