A Guide to Asperger Syndrome [Paperback]

This book is clearly written, well-organized, and requires no technical background or great effort from the reader. Dr Gillberg clearly has an empathetic view toward children that suffer from social difficulties related to Asperger's Syndrome. He provides some short but desriptive vignettes of this.

Dr Gillberg's criteria defining Asperger's Syndrome are the most widely used, so I have been interested in how they were developed. I have to admit that mostly based on the cost, I expected a scientific or medical text that would provide data from case series, or very extensive histories, or data closer to raw data, all of which would help validate this somewhat controversial construct. Instead, this text turned out to be rather slim, more of a short manual elaborating Gillberg's criteria for someone that did not wonder at the origin or validity of the criteria, but just wanted to get on with diagnosing. Gillberg does not even scratch the surface of the 'motor clumsiness' aspect, even though it is one of his criteria--and since the American Psychiatric Association 'drops' this criteria from the DSM, one imagines he would have professional interest in defending it.

There is a surprising lack of curiosity as to the origin of this "Asperger's presentation in people, rather the old standby "genetics" is mechanically proffered without evidence. Dr Gillberg does not offer any definition or theory of 'normal' personality, but rather just assumes all 'normal' people know what 'normal' is. Now I am not disputing that there exist normative (meaning usually present) human capacities, the absence of which helps define the construct of Asperger's. But I am suggesting that not placing the construct of Asperger's in a context of human functioning leaves diagnosing just a label. One gets the impression that Dr Gillberg doesn't treat Asperger's but just diagnoses (and perhaps refers, but to whom for what he doesn't describe.)

A much better value in the overall treatment of Asperger's is Tony Attwood's The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome For a view of how Asperger's traits fit into the spectrum of personality Simon Baron-Cohen's The Essential Difference: Male And Female Brains And The Truth About Autism is extremely interesting. If one is really brave, and wants to get into the body and motor aspects, one should look at Alexander's Lowen's The Betrayal of the Body where it is covered under the much more comprehensive (if unfortunately named) concept schizoid character.