ABSTRACT
This chapter reflects and comments on a number of aspects of Asperger's syndrome, as described by Hans Asperger in his original 1944 paper. Asperger mentions his own use of intuition—perhaps similar to the psychotherapist's use of countertransference—in attempting to understand the boys. Asperger's description of the clinical picture and his detailed examples of the four boys include familiar descriptions of situations that suggest that emotional regulation and self-control are absent. This is particularly poignant in the descriptions of how the boys came to the Clinic—not managing ordinary classroom and school situations in particular. The emotional regulator is often described in psychoanalytic thinking as an internalized benign and helpful figure with whom we can identify. Asperger's paper and his honest and detailed observations are highly evocative and full of feeling. His children are recognizably Asperger children, whose lives are often so hard and whose reactions and behaviour are difficult to manage and to understand.
