ReviewHistory of the human sciences2013
How autism became autism: The radical transformation of a central concept of child development in Britain.
Review in History of the human sciences, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
47 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 244 citations in OpenAlex.
- Can We Modulate Our Second Brain and Its Metabolites to Change Our Mood? A Systematic Review on Efficacy, Mechanisms, and Future Directions of "Psychobiotics".International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Pooled it
- Assessment and correlates of autistic symptoms in Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders measured with the PANSS Autism Severity Score: A systematic review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- The impact of schizotypy on quality of life among adults with autism spectrum disorder.BMC psychiatry · 2022Trial
- Trial
- Perspectives of Autistic People, Parents, and Healthcare Professionals on Communication in Healthcare Settings and Related Needs in Georgia: A Qualitative Study.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2026Article
- Role of Mast Cells and Neuroinflammation in Neuropsychiatric Disorders of the Developmental Period.Biomolecules · 2026Review
- The Concept of Autism in Autism Spectrum Disorder and Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorder: Historical Divergence and Phenomenological Rapprochement.Journal of the Korean Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2026Review
- Quality of life outcomes associated with stigma in autistic adults and their families: a systematic review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Review
- Autism Spectrum Disorder in the Genomic Era: A Comprehensive Review of Etiology, Precision Diagnostics, Clinical Outcomes, and Emerging Gene-Editing Therapies.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2026Review
- Sexual and Reproductive Health Needs for Adolescents with Autistic Spectrum Disorder in Rwanda, A Phenomenological Study.Pediatric health, medicine and therapeutics · 2026Article
- "I Know It's Very Spectrum-y": Autistic Women Reflect on Sensory Aspects of Food and Eating.Autism in adulthood · 2025Article
- Should We Continue to Tell Autistic People that Their Brains are Different?Psychological reports · 2025Review
- Catatonia and autism spectrum disorder: A common comorbid syndrome or a core feature?World journal of psychiatry · 2025Review
- Categorical misalignment: Making autism(s) in big data biobanking.Social studies of science · 2025Article
- Harsh Parenting and Trajectories of Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties in Autistic Children.Journal of autism and developmental disorders · 2024Article
- The world is nuanced but pixelated: Autistic individuals' perspective on HIPPEA.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2024Article
- Barriers to healthcare for Australian autistic adults.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2024Article
- Autism and Religion.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Oxytocin protective effects on zebrafish larvae models of autism-like spectrum disorder.Iranian journal of basic medical sciences · 2023Article
- Loose ends in the differential diagnosis of IBS-like symptoms.Frontiers in medicine · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
This article argues that the meaning of the word 'autism' experienced a radical shift in the early 1960s in Britain which was contemporaneous with a growth in epidemiological and statistical studies in child psychiatry. The first part of the article explores how 'autism' was used as a category to describe hallucinations and unconscious fantasy life in infants through the work of significant child psychologists and psychoanalysts such as Jean Piaget, Lauretta Bender, Leo Kanner and Elwyn James Anthony. Theories of autism were then associated both with schizophrenia in adults and with psychoanalytic styles of reasoning. The closure of institutions for 'mental defectives' and the growth in speech therapy services in the 1960s and 1970s encouraged new models for understanding autism in infants and children. The second half of the article explores how researchers such as Victor Lotter and Michael Rutter used the category of autism to reconceptualize psychological development in infants and children via epidemiological studies. These historical changes have influenced the form and function of later research into autism and related conditions.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.