Asperger’s Disorder

Asperger’s, often thought of as the other end of the Autism spectrum, the ‘‘lighter’’ version, emphasizing the social difficulties as opposed to the pervasive language deficits. By definition, Asperger’s disorder means impaired social interaction, restricted interests and activities without the significant delay in language, and average and/or above average intelligence.

A thorough psychological evaluation of those individuals at United Psychological Services who meet the DSM criteria for the diagnosis of Asperger’s results in the finding of a more fragile emotional persona along the schizophrenia continuum. Whether the diagnosis is that of schizoid personality features, Schizotypal personality, schizoaffective disorder or frank schizophrenia tends to depend upon the development age and degree of environmental stressors. The idea being that this fragile emotional status leaves the individual so vulnerable to their external environment that they require the protection of retreating inward emotionally and removing themselves socially as a defense mechanism to protect against the excess internal sensitivity.

Asperger’s syndrome (referenced as Asperger’s disorder) did not appear as a separate entity until 1980 and the debate remains as to whether Asperger’s and Autism are actually separate entities or represent a continuum. The primary distinction of Asperger’s is the lack of cognitive impairment or significant fluctuations in their neuropsychological functioning, the exact opposite of the definition of Autism.