Infantile Autism: A Clinical and Phenomenological-Anthropological Investigation Taking Language as the Guide (1970)

By: Gerhard Bosch

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Synopsis: Professor Bosch's study of infantile autism is a most valuable contribution to the slowly increasing body of knowledge about this baffling and most severe psychiatrie disorder of childhood. Reading it in the original German when it first appeared in 1962, I was greatly impressed by his deep sympathy for these unfortunate children and by his keen insight into the overt manifestations of a behavior which presents the observer with tantalizing riddles. Having spent nearly a lifetime in unravelling the meaning of the behavior of autistic children, I was much taken by Professor Bosch's very different approach to the same problem. His research sheds further light into the darkness that reigns in the mind of the autistic child. I am delighted that his important contribution is now easily available also to American readers. Everybody who works with children suffering from infantile autism for any length of time and also studies this disease, becomes impressed by how much their inability to relate and to resporrd appro"prrately can teach us about human psychology in general, and in particular how and why things go wrong in man's relations to his fellow man. All through his book, Professor Bosch correctly stresses that autistic behavior is neither asymptom nor a syndrome, but a unique form of breakdown in all inter personal relations.