{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,18]],"date-time":"2026-10-18T01:51:10Z","timestamp":1792288270980,"version":"4.4.0"},"reference-count":100,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2013,5,8]],"date-time":"2013-05-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1367971200000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/page\/policies\/text-and-data-mining-license"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["History of the Human Sciences"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2013,7]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>This article argues that the meaning of the word \u2018autism\u2019 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 \u2018autism\u2019 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 \u2018mental defectives\u2019 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.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/0952695113484320","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2013,5,8]],"date-time":"2013-05-08T20:31:07Z","timestamp":1368045067000},"page":"3-31","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":194,"title":["How autism became autism"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"26","author":[{"given":"Bonnie","family":"Evans","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"King\u2019s College London, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2013,5,8]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr5-0952695113484320","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/j.2044-8341.1957.tb01205.x"},{"key":"bibr6-0952695113484320","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/j.2044-8341.1958.tb01968.x"},{"key":"bibr7-0952695113484320","first-page":"89","volume":"25","author":"Anthony E. 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