G. E. Sukhareva's place in the history of autism research: Context, reception, translation
Grunya Efimovna Sukhareva was a Soviet child psychiatrist and neurologist who described an autism-like condition closely resembling Asperger’s syndrome about 20 years before Hans Asperger and Leo Kanner published their descriptions of autistic psychopathy and early infantile autism, first naming it schizoid psychopathy (1925), later renaming it autistic psychopathy (1959). While autistic-like syndromes were repeatedly described independently in many countries in the first half of the 20th century, Sukhareva seems to have been the only person to give a detailed description of the syndrome’s presentation in girls and its sex differences. Considered the founder of child psychiatry in Russia, she is little known elsewhere, despite a significant portion of her work being written in German. Awareness of Sukhareva and her work has been slowly making its way into autistic history, largely as a result of the 1996 publication of Sula Wolff’s translation of the 1926 case studies on schizoid psychopathy in boys, but the large majority of her work remains untranslated from German and/or Russian and inaccessible to many people. Her 1927 paper of case studies on girls, describing sex differences similar to those being described now, are virtually unknown even in German texts. Including the translation of Sukhareva’s German-language paper on schizoid psychopathy in girls, summaries of her Russian-language texts on the syndrome, and what is hoped is a comprehensive bibliography of her published work, this thesis seeks to place Sukhareva’s work and its reception within the wider context of research into autistic-like syndromes in Anglo-European medical literature, and to understand the impact of domestic and international politics of the 20th century on child psychiatry and the international exchange of scientific knowledge. The thesis also corrects misinformation found in some recent popular histories of autism.
History
Copyright Date
2019-01-01Date of Award
2019-01-01Publisher
Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of WellingtonRights License
Author Retains CopyrightDegree Discipline
PsychologyDegree Grantor
Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of WellingtonDegree Level
DoctoralDegree Name
Doctor of PhilosophyANZSRC Type Of Activity code
1 PURE BASIC RESEARCHVictoria University of Wellington Item Type
Awarded Doctoral ThesisLanguage
en_NZAlternative Language
deVictoria University of Wellington School
School of Languages and CulturesAdvisors
Ellenbroek, Bart; Tempian, Monica; Sutherland, MargaretUsage metrics
Categories
- Multicultural, Intercultural and Cross-cultural Studies
- Central and Eastern European Literature (incl. Russian)
- Central and Eastern European Languages (incl. Russian)
- North American History
- Paediatrics
- German Language
- Literature in German
- European History (excl. British, Classical Greek and Roman)
- Translation and Interpretation Studies
- Psychiatry (incl. Psychotherapy)