Leo Kanner

Leo Kanner
Leo Kanner ca. 1955.
Born	June 13, 1894 Klekotow, Austria-Hungary
Died	April 3, 1981(1981-04-03) (aged 86) Sykesville, Maryland, U.S.

Leo Kanner (pronounced "Kahner"; June 13, 1894 – April 3, 1981) was an Austrian-American psychiatrist and physician known for his work related to autism. In 1943, Kanner published a landmark paper, "Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact" describing 11 children who were highly intelligent but displayed "a powerful desire for aloneness" and "an obsessive insistence on persistent sameness". He later names their condition "early infantile autism." This is now known as autism. Because of this he is referred as the "father of child psychiatry". He is considered to be one of the most influential American clinical psychiatrists of the 20th century.

Kanner was born in 1894 in the small town of Klekotów, Austro-Hungary (nowadays Ukraine). In this area the proportion of people of Jewish descent was about 70% of the total population. His parents were Jewish and he received both a religious as well as a secular education. Kanner spent the first years of his life in Klekotów with his family and was brought up according to Jewish tradition and custom. As a young boy he moved to Berlin in 1906 to live with his uncle. Kanner passed his final examinations from Sophien Gymnasium and decided to go to medical school.

With the outbreak of World War I while he was 20 years old, Kanner – because of his Austrian origin – was recruited to serve in the Austro-Hungarian Army, and was in the medical service of the 10th Infantry Regiment. After his military service he continued medical school and passed his medical exams in 1916. He officially became a physician in 1921. As a physician he worked as a cardiologist in Charité Hospital. Kanner began doing work with normal heart sound to the relationship of the electrocardiogram. At that time, the atmosphere at the Charité clinics and institutes inspired rapid progress in science, teaching and patient care. The Charité, situated in the middle of Berlin, attracted students, physicians and scientists from all over the world, resulting in a group of outstanding personalities and renowned clinicians.