Over the past summer, when I decided that I wanted to begin a blog, I checked out the book In a Different Key: The Story of Autism. It’s a phenomenally written story about the early emergence of Autism as a diagnosis, and how the public began to receive it.
The weekend after I began reading the book, Donald Triplett passed away, 89 and a victim of cancer. To pay homage to Donald— or Case 1— I’d like to write a little bit about him.
Donald’s early life is depicted artfully in the first few pages of the book. He is a little boy with curious little habits, and they strike me with such familiarity as I think of my own brother. I was particularly charmed by how instead of saying 6, he’d repeatedly say “hexagon”, drawing uncommon connections and leaving us to only speculate about whether his language had any unrecognized coherence.
When we think of Autism today, our perception can easily be accredited to the many people who made Donald’s diagnosis possible. Early in the book, we are introduced to Donald’s parents, Mary and Beamon Triplett. It is because of them the story of Autism begins with Donald.
Despite the many reservations the public had about how Mary was raising her young son, often blaming her for “overstimulating” her child, she remained steadfast in providing every resource she could for her him. As the daughter of a successful bank owner and wife of a private lawyer, and as a teacher herself, her family had the means to seek doctors of the highest regard.
With much research, the Triplett family found a connection to Dr. Leo Kanner, a German physician that had garnered much acclaim in America for his work in child psychiatry. Kanner had a distinct style of patient diagnosis, where he would write up detailed descriptions of paint illness and first-hand observations, a style that was preceded by a by-the-book list of symptoms and medical history. It is these stories that gave him headway when dealing with his first case of autism— that of Donald Triplett.
Kanner requested a similar account of Donald’s behaviors, interests, and anything that might help him in his work. Beamon Triplett delivered. With the help of his secretary, Mr. Triplett detailed a 33 page description of his son, which was surely a welcome addition to Kanner’s soon to be growing stack of peculiar cases just like that of Donald.
The many of you who have heard of different cases of autism, or who know several people who are affected personally, may be wondering; how was a condition that continuously proved to have only one consistency in its targets— endless variation— boxed within a diagnosis? Well, the answer lies within the name of the diagnosis itself. Autism, which comes from the Greek word 𝛼υτο, describes a tendency to interact exclusively with an internal reality. It was coined by Eugen Bleuler to be a symptom of Schizophrenia. Like Donald, who his mother could rarely engage, I’ve seen this tendency for solitary play in my brother as well.
I am struck by awe at how different this story would have gone had Kanner not landed a job in South Dakota, and had he not been in child psychiatry, and had he not so passionately fought against the largely procedural medical institutions that cared little for patients. Kanner was a Jewish man in Germany just before the Holocaust began, where he would have likely been killed.
Listening to this story, I can only be grateful for the opportunities that Kanner and other influential people have brought people with autism and other disabilities to enable coexistence in this world. Their extensive research and outreach are why we no longer have institutional systems for people deemed less than human by the medical system.
Let’s remember to be eternally grateful for the many blessings of living in today’s age, and to be the individuals who bring blessings to future generations. And once again, much love to Donald and the Triplett family.
Signing off,
Akshara