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 Until the late 1970’s, it was Leo Kanner’s
name alone that was synonymous with autism. Published in the United States, Kanner’s landmark paper provided a classic
description of children who from birth or very early in life were socially aloof and indifferent, mute or had echolalia and
idiosyncratic speech, were intensely resistant to change in their own repetitive routines, and who had isolated skills in
visuo-spatial or rote memory tasks against a background of general delay in learning (Frith). Kanner borrowed the term "autism"
from Bleuler’s work on schizophrenia , published in 1911. Bleuler singled out autism as one of the fundamental features
of schizophrenia, and regarded it as an active withdrawal from reality in order to live in an inner world of fantasy. Kanner
suggested that infantile autism was the earliest form of schizophrenia, and that autistic children were of potentially normal
intelligence (Freeman). Originally, Kanner hypothesized that the syndrome was genetic in origin, but, influenced by the prevailing
attitudes in the USA of the time, he wrote in 1949 that the cause of autism was emotional, not physical. He went on to say
that the disorder was due to abnormal child rearing by cold, over-intellectual parents who were of high social class. This
idea was readily adopted, since psychoanalytic furor was at its peak (Frith). In 1944, Hans Asperger, a Viennese paediatrician,
published the first in what was to become a series of papers on older children and adolescents who were naive, inappropriate,
and egocentric in social interaction, had good grammar and vocabulary but repetitive speech with poor intonation and poor
body language, were absorbed in circumscribed interests, and usually had poor motor coordination. The children whom he described
as suffering from "autistic psychopathology" were of borderline, normal, or superior intelligence, but often had specific
learning difficulties (Frith). Asperger always maintained that the syndrome he described was due to an abnormality in certain
aspects of brain development that were likely genetic in origin. Unlike Kanner, he did not believe that autism was a type
of schizophrenia or any other form of psychosis. Asperger’s definition of autism was wider than Kanner’s, and
included cases that showed severe organic damage and those that shaded into normality. Today, the label of Asperger’s
syndrome tends to be reserved for the rare intelligent and highly verbal, near-normal autistic child (Wing). Though Asperger’s work was widely recognized
in mainland Europe immediately after its publication, it was virtually unknown, or perhaps ignored, in English-language literature.
Asperger’s view was that autism was an inherited personality variant. He wrote about seeing similar, but milder features
in the parents, most often the father (Frith). This view was seen as politically incorrect in its time, since psychoanalytic
theories were popular and the idea of blaming mothers for childhood psychiatric disorders was prevalent. However, in the early
1980s, several publications discussing Asperger’s ideas were published in the United Kingdom. Lorna Wing and Judith
Gould put forth the idea of the autistic spectrum, a range of disorders characterized by triad of impairments in social interaction,
communication, and imagination, of which Kanner’s and Asperger’s syndromes are only part. In 1994, Asperger’s
Syndrome appeared for the first time in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (Frith). Written in 1943 by Antoine de Saint Exupery, a
French pilot, inventor and author, The Little Prince is one of the best-known and most beloved books for young people ever
published. The plot is very simple: a pilot stranded in the desert encounters an odd child who claims to originate from a
tiny asteroid. This little prince shares his planet with three volcanoes and a haughty rose, whose demands confound him. As
the pilot struggles to repair his shattered plane, the little prince recounts the tale of how he came to Earth. Seeking a
better understanding of friendship, the little prince had embarked upon an interplanetary journey, where he met and was baffled
by various adults, including a king, a conceited man, a tippler, a businessman, a street lamp lighter, and a geographer. Each,
like the little prince, lived on a small, lonely planet. Finally, the little prince arrives on Earth and is disappointed to
find it seemingly uninhabited, as he lands in the midst of the desert. Through his interactions with a patient fox and with
a poisonous snake, the little prince learns valuable lessons about the nature of friendship. Though the little prince also
finds a kindred spirit in the pilot, his desire to return to the demanding rose and his familiar home leads him to make a
deadly pact with the snake. Aside from the appeal of the simple, fable-like
structure of the narrative and its accompanying illustrations, it is the little prince himself that makes this book most intriguing.
The character of the little prince has been interpreted in many ways, and it has been suggested by various authors that he
represents one’s "inner child." It has also been suggested that the character was based upon Leon Werth, a childhood
friend of Saint Exupery, to whom the book is dedicated. However, if the book is interpreted more literally, the bizarre behaviour
of the little prince may be viewed in another manner. His fantastical tale of interplanetary travel may be his interpretation
of his trials in attempting to integrate himself into various social situations, while his homesickness for his minuscule
planet of origin may be indicative of the obsessive attachment that autistic individuals have to their homes and especially
their favourite possessions. Asperger’s insightful 1944 paper provides not only his first general description of what
he at that time called "autistic psychopathy," but also four intriguing case studies of school-aged boys who epitomised this
form of autism. "In what follows, I will describe a particularly interesting and highly recognisable type of child. The children
I will present all have in common a fundamental disturbance which manifests itself in their physical appearance, expressive
functions, and indeed, their whole behaviour." Although Saint Exupery’s little prince is a fictional character, his
appearance, verbal and non-verbal communication, and social interactions bear striking similarities to Asperger’s description.
Even when the more recent revisions to the diagnostic criteria for Asperger’s syndrome are applied, the little prince
may still be considered to possess the characteristics of an individual with the syndrome. "Once one has properly recognised an autistic
individual one can spot such children instantly. They are recognisable from small details, for instance, the way they enter
the consulting room at their first visit, their behaviour in the first few moments, and the first words they utter (Asperger)."
In his original paper, Asperger emphasised that the appearance of the autistic individuals that he had studied was distinctive.
He describes autistic children as having "highly differentiated, finely boned features" and as having an "almost aristocratic
appearance." While this generalisation is now controversial, it may be applied anecdotally to include Exupery’s title
character. It is interesting to note that the little prince’s lineage is not mentioned at any point in the text, nor
is he ever illustrated as wearing a crown or other royal accouterments. Thus, the narrator’s conclusion that the boy
is a prince must be arrived at solely through the child’s physical features and mannerisms, which he describes as "charming."
The narrator goes on to describe the little prince as a "fragile treasure," and speaks tenderly of "his pale forehead, his
closed eyes, his locks of hair that trembled in the wind." Asperger also mentions several times that autistic children often
have poor gross motor coordination. More recent research has demonstrated that most people with this syndrome are poor at
games involving motor skills. In addition, the executive problems inherent to the disorder have been sown in some cases to
affect the ability to write or to draw (Wing). It is an interesting hypothesis, then, that the little prince is so anxious
for the narrator to draw him a picture of a sheep upon their initial meeting because he suffers from what would now be referred
to as a non-verbal learning disorder, which prevents him from drawing or writing by himself. Unlike individuals with more severe forms of autism,
those with Asperger’s syndrome are generally highly verbal. Most begin to speak at the age expected in normal children,
while others may begin to speak at an extremely early age (Frith). However, it is the content of speech that is abnormal,
tending to be pedantic and often consisting of lengthy disquisition on favourite subjects (Wing). A full command of grammar
is sooner or later acquired, but there may be difficulty in using pronouns correctly, with the substitution of the second
or third for the first person forms (Wing). Sometimes a word or phrase may be repeated over and over again in a stereotyped
fashion. The little prince appears to do this often, stating "the grownups are very odd" each and every time he encounters
one of the adult residents of the various planets that he visits. A child or adult with Asperger’s may create neologisms,
or use words in a manner that is unusual. Utterances are always logical, even if they are unrelated to the question or originated
from an unusual point of view (Wing). The little prince’s odd form of logic is illustrated in an angry diatribe against
"adults" who are too caught up in "matters of consequence" to listen to his tales: "‘There is a certain red-faced gentleman...he
has never done anything in his life but add up figures...and that makes him swell up with pride. But he is not a man--he is
a mushroom!’" It can be assumed that the little prince means to say that the man, swollen with pride, is like a mushroom,
but the manner in which he expresses this is rather unusual. The patterns of speech used by those with Asperger’s syndrome
may be slow, and there may be irrelevant or tangential replies to questions (Wing). Consistent with this, the narrator notes
that "information would come very slowly [from the child], as it might chance to fall from his thoughts," and that "the little
prince, who asked me so many questions, never seemed to hear the ones I asked him. It was from the words dropped by chance
that, little by little, everything was revealed to me." Many deficiencies of non-verbal communication
are seen in individuals with Asperger’s syndrome. Often, there may be little facial expression except with strong emotions
such as anger or misery. Gestures are commonly limited, or else large and clumsy and inappropriate for the accompanying speech
(Frith). Conversely, comprehension of other people's expressions and gestures is poor and they may misinterpret or ignore
these and other non-verbal cues (Wing). The oddity of the little prince’s non-verbal communication is noted by the narrator
upon his first encounter with the boy: "I saw a most extraordinary small person, who stood there examining me with great seriousness."
Asperger wrote that "autistic children have a paucity of facial and gestural expression...while talking...their face is mostly
slack and empty, in line with the lost, faraway glance." The narrator describes the boy in a very similar manner, describing
him as looking "very serious, like some one lost far away." The little prince is also described as having "an odd little voice,"
a characteristic that Asperger had also noted in many of the autistic children he had studied, describing their speech as
"unnatural, often like a caricature, which provokes ridicule in the naive listener." In addition, if the illustrations of
the little prince are examined carefully, a lack of physical expression is apparent. His eyes are blank and empty, and his
posture stiff and awkward. While the illustrations are cartoon-like, the peculiarities of the character’s gestures are
very noticeable, particularly when compared to the expressive and deeply etched faces of the "adults" depicted in the book. Repetitive activities and a stubborn resistance
to alterations of deep-seated routines are other key behaviours seen in those with Asperger’s syndrome. Children with
the disorder enjoy spinning objects and watching them until the movement ceases, to a far greater extent than normal. The
narrator eventually comes "to understand the secrets of [the little prince’s] sad little life...for a long time [he]
had found [his] only entertainment in the quiet pleasure of looking at the sunset." The little prince’s true obsession
with sunsets becomes apparent later in the book: "if he had been a master of...complete authority, he would have been able
to watch the sunset, not forty-four times in one day, but seventy-two, or even...two hundred...without ever having to move
his chair." Asperger also noted that "autistic children suffer from homesickness much more severely...It is possible that
an exceptional degree of bonding to the objects and habits of the home, bordering on the obsessional, causes these children
to suffer so much at separation." Indeed, the little prince does suffer from terrible homesickness, to which he eventually
succumbs with tragic consequences. Another of Asperger’s observations was that "in everything these children follow
their own impulses and interests regardless of the outside world." In the case of the little prince, this assertion is supported
by the narrator’s description of the child’s behaviour upon their first encounter: "[he] seemed neither to be
straying uncertainly among the sands, nor to be fainting from fatigue or hunger or thirst or fear. Nothing about him gave
any suggestion of a child lost in the middle of the desert, a thousand miles from any human habitation." Finally, it may be
suggested that the "tiny planet no larger than himself" from which the boy originates is merely a metaphorical representation
of the tightly circumscribed, isolated world of a child with Asperger’s syndrome. People with Asperger’s syndrome, in its
most classical form, may display amazing skills in addition to, or perhaps in spite of, other impairments. It is not uncommon
for them to possess excellent rote memories and become intensely interested in one or two subjects, such as astronomy, geology,
history, the genealogy of royalty, bus time-tables, prehistoric monsters, or the characters in a television serial, to the
exclusion of all else. The little prince is fascinated by sunsets, cleans and tends to his planet compulsively, and speaks
at length about his rose, with whom he appears to be virtually obsessed. Typically, individuals with Asperger’s syndrome
absorb every available fact concerning their chosen field and talk about it at length, whether or not the listener is interested
(Wing). One such lengthy disquisition by the little prince, directed at the narrator, illustrates this habit well: "When you’ve
finished your own toilet in the morning, then it is time to attend to the toilet of your planet, just so, with the greatest
care. You must see to it that you pull up regularly all the baobabs, at the very first moment when they can be distinguished
from the rose-bushes which they resemble so closely in their earliest youth." He becomes "white with rage" when interrupted
by the pilot, who is distracted from attempting to repair his plane by the child’s incessant talking. Furthermore, the
little prince is skilled in gardening to such an extent that he can actually communicate with his prized rose. He is also
somehow able to understand and communicate with animals, and seems to be able to empathise with them more readily than with
other human beings. This is an ability that he appears to have in common with Temple Grandin, an American woman with autism
who has devoted her life to designing more humane livestock-handling devices by putting herself in the place of the animals
that will eventually use the equipment (Frith). While Wing writes that people with Asperger’s
syndrome have little grasp of the meaning of the facts they learn, Asperger always maintained that the children he studied
possessed excellent abilities of logical abstract thinking. Consistent with Asperger’s view, the little prince makes
many insightful comments within the narrative that appear to be beyond what would be expected for his age. Some of the little
prince’s comments such as "what makes the desert beautiful...is that somewhere it hides a well," are not only surprisingly
mature, but also poetic. At times, his abstractions appear to be beyond the narrator’s grasp, something that is illustrated
in the pilot’s statement that "my friend never explained anything to me. He thought, perhaps, that I was like himself.
But I, alas, do not know how to see sheep through the walls of boxes," and also in the passage "He answered me at once, ‘Oh,
come, come!’ as if he were speaking of something that was self-evident. And I was obliged to make a great mental effort
to solve this problem, without any assistance." "[The] disturbance [of autism] results in severe
and characteristic difficulties of social integration (Asperger)." It is this impairment in two-way social interaction that
is the most blatant and debilitating characteristic of individuals with Asperger’s syndrome. However, it appears that
this impairment in social interaction is not due primarily to a desire to withdraw from social contact. Rather, the problem
arises from a lack of ability to understand and use the unwritten, unstated, constantly changing rules governing social behaviour
(Wing). "[One patient] did not know the meaning of respect and was utterly indifferent to the authority of adults. He lacked
distance and talked without shyness even to strangers (Asperger)." The little prince also possesses this characteristic, which
is apparent in several interactions with the adults he meets on his journey. He rarely says hello nor good-bye to any of the
adults he encounters, and is described on several occasions as "[going] away puzzled," more or less in mid-conversation, often
talking to himself. "[Autistic children] may demand a service or simply start a conversation on a theme of their own choosing.
All this goes...without any regard for differences in age, social rank or common courtesies (Asperger)." This disregard for
social niceties is also displayed on several occasions throughout Saint Exupery’s novella. For example, the little prince
is confounded by the fact that the king that he meets refers to him as "a subject", wondering aloud, "‘how could he
recognize me when he had never seen me before?’ He did not know how the world is simplified for kings. To them, all
men are subjects." During his encounter with the ‘conceited man’, the little prince demonstrates that he cannot
grasp either the concept of saluting one’s elders, or of applauding someone who has performed well, viewing both as
a game "more entertaining than the visit to the king." Interestingly, the little prince seems to most easily befriend the
characters in the novella that are the most eccentric. For example, he says of a lamplighter, who spends each moment of his
day repeatedly lighting, then extinguishing a street lamp, "this man is the only one of them all whom I could have made my
friend," adding that he was "sorry most of all to leave [the lamp lighter’s] planet because it was blest every day with
1440 sunsets." Upon meeting a geographer, who explains that he is "‘a scholar who knows the location of all the seas,
rivers, towns, mountains, and deserts,’" the little prince says, "‘here at last is a man who has a real profession!’" Asperger stated that normal children acquire social
skills without conscious awareness because they learn such skills instinctively. In contrast, people with Asperger syndrome
have to learn social skills via intellect, and may require constant reminders of how to behave in particular situations. It
is theorized that they lack the intuitive knowledge of how to adapt their approaches and responses to fit in with the needs
and personalities of others, a deficit that is termed "mind blindness." Unlike typical children, who are able to learn social
skills through the unconscious observation of others, autistic children have to learn such skills systematically, just as
they would learn their school lessons. This sort of "teaching" is illustrated in the little prince’s interaction with
a desert fox, who wishes to be tamed by the child: "‘What must I do, to tame you?’ The little prince asks, ‘First
you must sit down…in the grass…you will sit a little closer everyday…[and] observe the proper rites…’"
the fox explains. However, the little prince is still baffled by this friendship ritual, and becomes hung up on the semantics
of the lesson, asking, "‘What is a rite?’" As is characteristic of most individuals with Asperger’s syndrome,
the little prince does not seem to completely understand the concept of friendship in the same manner as a typical person.
After taming the fox, the little prince is admonishes the fox for crying at his departure, saying "‘it is your own fault...I
never wished you any sort of harm...you wanted me to tame you...but now your are going to cry...[so] it has done you no good
at all!’" Some individuals with Asperger’s syndrome may be aware of their difficulties and even strive to overcome
them, but in inappropriate ways and with little success. Like the little prince, they may flit from person to person, never
making any firm emotional connections, and treating other humans as study subjects rather than as companions. Though Asperger concluded his groundbreaking paper
with a rather optimistic view for the futures of children with his syndrome, writing: "despite abnormality [they] can fulfill
their social role within the community, especially if they find understanding, love, and guidance." However, more recent studies
have demonstrated a less rosy view. Clinically diagnosable anxiety and varying degrees of depression are found commonly in
individuals with Asperger’s syndrome, especially as they approach adolescence (Wing). Many eventually become aware that
they are different from their peers, and may become overly sensitive to criticism and extremely socially isolated. In a follow-up
study of twenty-two people with Asperger syndrome, five had attempted suicide by the time of early adult life (Wing). In addition,
individuals with Asperger’s syndrome are easy targets for ridicule and bullying, perhaps because "they give the impression
of fragile vulnerability and a pathetic childishness, which some find infinitely touching and others merely exasperating."
(Wing) It may be hypothesised then, that the prince makes his suicide pact with the snake not simply because he believes that
he will be able to return to his own planet, but rather because he feels intensely alienated from and overwhelmed by our Earth.
Why is it of any consequence that the little prince
appears to have suffered from Asperger’s syndrome? Indeed, he is simply a fictional character, invented by a man who
is long-deceased. However, the exploration of the nature of Asperger’s syndrome using a well-known, simply written book
may prove to be a valuable teaching tool, particularly for young people. Furthermore, from the eerie similarities between
Saint Exupery’s description of the alien child and of Asperger’s initial case studies, two major questions arise.
First, if the character of the little prince was based on a living individual, did this person have Asperger’s syndrome
or another form of autism? Second, if the book was autobiographical, did Saint Exupery himself suffer from Asperger’s
syndrome? Though he disappeared mysteriously following a plane crash not long after the publication of The Little Prince,
it is known that Saint Exupery had an almost unnatural obsession with aircraft, and was described posthumously as "a strange
human being, exceptional and wonderful, a prince, a generous prince, aloof, lost among us (Eyheramonno)." Regardless of whether
a real little prince ever existed, a reexamination of the novella based on Asperger’s writings and on the more
contemporary views of his syndrome may prove to be invaluable in understanding the fascinating, complex, and wondrous individuals
with this form of autism. References
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