Leo Kanner and the Musical Autist

 

Music and Autism was widely recognised in the early 20th century by Leo Kanner in his observations of Autistic children and their musical abilities. “Observations of autistic musical behaviour have been recorded for as long as the modern concept of autism has existed. Leo Kanner’s foundational study “Autistic Disturbance of Affective Content” (1943) includes descriptions of musical activities performed by six of eleven subjects, and researchers following in Kanner’s footsteps likewise found clinical significance in autistic “musicking.” Psychoanalysts were particularly eager to explore the role of music in autistic life, commenting upon an apparent “special” and “unique” attraction, responsiveness, and creative approach to music. William Fassenden, J.

 

However, by the 1960’s this kind of research was dropped for more genetic studying of autistics, and this continued into the 1970’s. “Robust evidence favoured the view of autism as a strongly hereditary, neurodevelopmental (biogenetic) disorder, affecting a constellation of perceptual, cognitive, affective, and motor domains. Aloneness, conceived by Kanner as “outstanding, ‘pathognomonic,’ [and] fundamental” to autism, was recast as a secondary consequence of impairments in social interaction, communication, and regulation. This paradigm shift rendered musicality—once a key component of many psychoanalytic portraits of autistic subjects—extraneous. Researchers subsequently directed their attention toward developmental capacities used in everyday functioning and pursued neurological and genetic testing. Scant evidence of autistic musicality is found from 1970s onward; by the 1990s,
autistic musicality resembled more of a myth than a fact: its existence was broadly recognized, but never tangibly demonstrated, aside from haphazard attempts found in outdated psychoanalytic studies”. William Fessenden, J. p 2.

 

It is at the turn of the millennium that Autistic musicality research has become again a viable research topic. Musicologist began embracing music and disability studies especially music and neurodiverse conditions as a means of peer-to-peer communication tools for those who find social interaction and communication difficult, due to decreased social skills and atypical communication and interaction.

 

 

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