Grunya Sukhareva

I was greatly encouraged to see the article about Grunya Efimovna Sukhareva in your journal earlier this year ¹. I had come across her myself whilst researching my upcoming book on women and autism ², reviewing the evidence that, throughout autism’s history, females have been overlooked, misdiagnosed or missed altogether. I was intrigued to discover, thanks to Kevin Rebecchi’s translation of Grunya Sukhareva’s early work ³ that, even in autism’s very beginnings, there was a particularly special woman who has been shamefully overlooked. In exploring the ‘what is autism’ question, I could count on the fingers of one hand papers that acknowledged her 1920s contributions, whereas there were hundreds where Kanner (and sometimes Asperger) were hailed as the father(s) of autism. I have recently been heartened to find, in a children’s picture book on brains and neurodiversity, that the first description of autistic symptoms was attributed to Grunya Efimovna Sukhareva in 1925 (with no mention of either Kanner or Asperger!) ⁴. Given the theme of my book, it was Sukhareva’s painstakingly detailed and insightful descriptions of what we might now call female autism that caught my eye. I have been intrigued to note that, even where some attempted an acknowledgment of her role in autism’s history, what she had to say about girls was still overlooked – exactly the point made in this article. And this is still an ongoing problem. In a paper published earlier this year about the search for the first discoverer of autism, Sukhareva is fully acknowledged as an earlier contributor, but only her work on boys is referenced ⁵. Ironically, in the introduction to her paper on girls, she noted, “The problem of the influence of sex differences on the symptomatology and course of various clinical forms deserves much more attention than it usually receives.” Indeed! Grunya Efimovna Sukhareva was indeed “Pioneering, prodigious and perspicacious” ⁶. Let’s not lose sight of her again.

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I was greatly encouraged to see the article about Grunya Efimovna Sukhareva in your journal earlier this year ¹. I had come across her myself whilst researching my upcoming book on women and autism ², reviewing the evidence that, throughout autism’s history, females have been overlooked, misdiagnosed or missed altogether. I was intrigued to discover, thanks to Kevin Rebecchi’s translation of Grunya Sukhareva’s early work ³ that, even in autism’s very beginnings, there was a particularly special woman who has been shamefully overlooked.

In exploring the ‘what is autism’ question, I could count on the fingers of one hand papers that acknowledged her 1920s contributions, whereas there were hundreds where Kanner (and sometimes Asperger) were hailed as the father(s) of autism. I have recently been heartened to find, in a children’s picture book on brains and neurodiversity, that the first description of autistic symptoms was attributed to Grunya Efimovna Sukhareva in 1925 (with no mention of either Kanner or Asperger!) ⁴.

Given the theme of my book, it was Sukhareva’s painstakingly detailed and insightful descriptions of what we might now call female autism that caught my eye. I have been intrigued to note that, even where some attempted an acknowledgment of her role in autism’s history, what she had to say about girls was still overlooked – exactly the point made in this article. And this is still an ongoing problem. In a paper published earlier this year about the search for the first discoverer of autism, Sukhareva is fully acknowledged as an earlier contributor, but only her work on boys is referenced ⁵.

Ironically, in the introduction to her paper on girls, she noted, “The problem of the influence of sex differences on the symptomatology and course of various clinical forms deserves much more attention than it usually receives.” Indeed!

Grunya Efimovna Sukhareva was indeed “Pioneering, prodigious and perspicacious” ⁶. Let’s not lose sight of her again.