Science Donald Triplett, the first person diagnosed with autism, dies at 89

https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/17/us/donald-triplett-autism-dies/index.html

https://lite.cnn.com/2023/06/17/us/donald-triplett-autism-dies/index.html

https://archive.ph/784Jn

By Keith Allen and Alaa Elassar, CNN
June 17, 2023


Donald Triplett, the Mississippi man known worldwide as "Case 1," the first person to be diagnosed with autism, died Thursday, June 15, 2023.

Donald Gray Triplett, the first person diagnosed with autism symptoms, died Thursday, according to his longtime employer. Triplett was 89.

Triplett started working at the Bank of Forest in 1958 and was remembered as a “fixture” at the small Mississippi city bank that sits about 40 miles east of Jackson.

“Every employee that has come through our doors since then, has fond stories and memories of him that we will treasure – looking enviously at his travel photos, having your picture taken by him as a new employee, a collection of trinkets & post cards given through the years, a nickname or number given when he met you, or even being shot by a rubber band,” the Bank of Forest said in a statement on Facebook.

“Don was a fixture at the bank for almost 65 years, and he will remain a fixture in our hearts for years to come.”

Triplett was identified as “Donald T.” in the 1943 paper “Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact” by Leo Kanner of Johns Hopkins Hospital and the subject of a PBS documentary film as well as the book “In a Different Key: The Story of Autism.”


Brothers Donald, left, and Oliver Triplett take a walk in Forest, Mississippi.

The book, written by John Donvan and Caren Zucker, was a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2017.

Autism or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) incorporates a group of neurodevelopmental disorders causing impaired communication skills and social skills. ASD generally starts before three years of age and lasts a lifetime, but early intervention plays a role in treatment and progress.

There is no definitive medical test to diagnose autism. Instead, the disorder is diagnosed by observing a child’s development.

Triplett was first examined by Kanner, a child psychiatrist, in 1938 and later becomes the first person diagnosed with autism symptoms. Kanner’s paper elaborated on the idea that autism is related to a lack of parental warmth; this is later dubbed the “refrigerator mother” theory.

“Seeing his story unfold over the years has been an honor,” the Mississippi bank noted in the statement.

“We are truly blessed to be a small part of his story as Autism’s first child. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Don’s family and his many friends. We ask that you keep our bank family in your prayers as well.”

Funeral services for Triplett will be held on Monday in Forest, according to his obituary.

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https://blogs.uoregon.edu/autismhistoryproject/archive/leo-kanner-autistic-disturbances-of-affective-contact-1943/

https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/blogs.uoregon.edu/dist/d/16656/files/2018/11/Kanner-Autistic-Disturbances-of-Affective-Contact-1943-vooiwn.pdf

 

[Larry David's Opera Cape]

Probably easier to hack it as an autist out in the world when you could work at the same company for 60 years. Doing things the same way every day for decades just resulted in a growing pension fund, not being canceled and thrown away.

 

[The Cunting Death]

Rip without you we would have no farms

 

[KittyGremlin]

Probably easier to hack it as an autist out in the world when you could work at the same company for 60 years. Doing things the same way every day for decades just resulted in a growing pension fund, not being canceled and thrown away.

This is what would happen when there was no victimhood culture or Internet with porn and tranny shit for autistic people to get indulged in. They managed to adapt, even if later than for regular people. Now, we just coddle autistic people into non-functionality, affirm their delusions and complain that the number of such people is rising.

 

[Anonitolia]

rip to the first true autist
your legacy will forever be remembered
on a very slightly related note... the first-ever autist was named Donald T.? fucking lol

 

[Dog-O-Tron 5000v5.0]

His funeral will be on June 20th at precisely 2:22 pm.

Guests are encouraged to wear blue and/or something with dinosaurs.

The service will last 60 minutes and zero seconds.

Donations in his name may be made to the Rail Passengers Association.

 

[Nicholas II of Russia]

RIP to the first madlad. You were one of the good ones.

 

[Pedophobe]

I want to see his collections.

 

[frozen_runner]

Probably easier to hack it as an autist out in the world when you could work at the same company for 60 years. Doing things the same way every day for decades just resulted in a growing pension fund, not being canceled and thrown away.

I heard an interview with Temple Grandin where she pointed out that autistic people like her often have an intuitive understanding of mechanical systems. But she says she's always been less good at formal math-based disciplines. And 50 years ago autistic people could become very effective engineers. But when we gated the job of engineer behind math proficiency, we locked all of those people out of a useful, rewarding profession. And a lot of them are wasting their lives being supported by family when they could have made their own way through the world and been great assets to their communities.

 

[Shadfan666xxx000]

O

 

[Justa Grata Honoria]

I heard an interview with Temple Grandin where she pointed out that autistic people like her often have an intuitive understanding of mechanical systems. But she says she's always been less good at formal math-based disciplines. And 50 years ago autistic people could become very effective engineers. But when we gated the job of engineer behind math proficiency, we locked all of those people out of a useful, rewarding profession. And a lot of them are wasting their lives being supported by family when they could have made their own way through the world and been great assets to their communities.

Its everything even basic shit like cleaning and most of learn on the job things are now needing licenses,degrees etc

 

[God of Nothing]

Its everything even basic shit like cleaning and most of learn on the job things are now needing licenses,degrees etc

You forgot the best part
They pay minimum wage.

 

[Lord of the Large Pants]

I heard an interview with Temple Grandin where she pointed out that autistic people like her often have an intuitive understanding of mechanical systems. But she says she's always been less good at formal math-based disciplines. And 50 years ago autistic people could become very effective engineers. But when we gated the job of engineer behind math proficiency, we locked all of those people out of a useful, rewarding profession. And a lot of them are wasting their lives being supported by family when they could have made their own way through the world and been great assets to their communities.

I managed to bypass this by going into computer infrastructure/networking (as opposed to computer science). I totally blow at math, but I've never found that to be a problem when working on servers, networking, etc. That might be another path for certain kinds of autists.

 

[Oilspill Battery]

Isn't it crazy how like 50 years ago autism was not even a recognized thing through several centuries and then all of a sudden half the planet seems to have it in one form or another?

Even more so, Donald was a savant with insane math abilities and nearly photographic memory + recorder like ability to memorize and sing music.

I'm not saying autism isn't a thing, but I feel like at this point its been so diluted it does more harm than good to put Chris Chan in the same category as Triplett.

 

[StayMad]

Isn't it crazy how like 50 years ago autism was not even a recognized thing through several centuries and then all of a sudden half the planet seems to have it in one form or another?

Even more so, Donald was a savant with insane math abilities and nearly photographic memory + recorder like ability to memorize and sing music.

I'm not saying autism isn't a thing, but I feel like at this point its been so diluted it does more harm than good to put Chris Chan in the same category as Triplett.

Autsim has been Tumblrized to more of a fashion statement and excuse for you being dumb. It's just a way not for losers to make excuses for their own shortcomings just like the weird gender stuff. Real autistic people can't function enough to use computers competently, yet I'm sure there are people on Kiwi Farms that think they are autistic.

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

I managed to bypass this by going into computer infrastructure/networking (as opposed to computer science). I totally blow at math, but I've never found that to be a problem when working on servers, networking, etc. That might be another path for certain kinds of autists.

Anything related to animals seems to be another very autist friendly field. I think it's mostly a sensory thing. Even loud animals usually have a soothing coat of fur to pet. Socializing with many domesticated animals is generally less of a sensory nightmare. Even when eye contact is needed, there's something different about looking into an animal's eyes.

Except chimps. Fuck chimps.

 

[AnOminous]

Isn't it crazy how like 50 years ago autism was not even a recognized thing through several centuries and then all of a sudden half the planet seems to have it in one form or another?

There have always been queer ducks and some of them were probably autists, too. The high functioning ones who could actually do useful things would have probably ended up in monasteries where they would do things like transcribe text into illuminated manuscripts and the like, and in return they'd get a structured existence where all their needs were taken care of.

The low functioning Chris-Chan ones probably just ended up village idiots, the ancient version of lolcows.

The profoundly autistic headbanging retards were probably just chained to a wall somewhere and left to die at best.

Also none of these would breed, much less with a female also with autistic traits.

So it wouldn't really be a noticeable phenomenon and wouldn't be seen as differing severities of the same thing.

Fast forward to modern society where you have places like Silicon Valley where not only did autists end up millionaires, but ended up mating, often with autistic females. Suddenly there's a near epidemic of autistic children being born, often the severely autistic kind. If that theory is correct, if you have a few of the tism genes, they might come along with some obsessive interests that are actually useful to society.

If you have more, you're Chris-Chan.

And if you have even more, you're a headbanging tard raging mongo who can only be warehoused in an institution.

I read about this about 20 years ago, speculation about why there seemed to be so many profoundly autistic births in Silicon Valley, not the self-diagnosed tumblr autists who usually don't even have it at all, but the headbanging mongo kind. I don't know if that hypothesis has panned out but it seems interesting.

 

[TheDataHorder]

this old legend was the start of a race of people unironically saying ree whenever possible.

if he was alive I'd give him a firm handshake and buy him a beer.
rest in piece mate.

 

[tehpope]

There have always been queer ducks and some of them were probably autists, too. The high functioning ones who could actually do useful things would have probably ended up in monasteries where they would do things like transcribe text into illuminated manuscripts and the like, and in return they'd get a structured existence where all their needs were taken care of.

The low functioning Chris-Chan ones probably just ended up village idiots, the ancient version of lolcows.

The profoundly autistic headbanging retards were probably just chained to a wall somewhere and left to die at best.

Also none of these would breed, much less with a female also with autistic traits.

So it wouldn't really be a noticeable phenomenon and wouldn't be seen as differing severities of the same thing.

Fast forward to modern society where you have places like Silicon Valley where not only did autists end up millionaires, but ended up mating, often with autistic females. Suddenly there's a near epidemic of autistic children being born, often the severely autistic kind. If that theory is correct, if you have a few of the tism genes, they might come along with some obsessive interests that are actually useful to society.

If you have more, you're Chris-Chan.

And if you have even more, you're a headbanging tard raging mongo who can only be warehoused in an institution.

I read about this about 20 years ago, speculation about why there seemed to be so many profoundly autistic births in Silicon Valley, not the self-diagnosed tumblr autists who usually don't even have it at all, but the headbanging mongo kind. I don't know if that hypothesis has panned out but it seems interesting.

There's also the mormons having a lot of aspie kids. Usually because they marry and fuck their cousins and what not.

 

[glass_houses]

There have always been queer ducks and some of them were probably autists, too. The high functioning ones who could actually do useful things would have probably ended up in monasteries where they would do things like transcribe text into illuminated manuscripts and the like, and in return they'd get a structured existence where all their needs were taken care of.

The low functioning Chris-Chan ones probably just ended up village idiots, the ancient version of lolcows.

The profoundly autistic headbanging retards were probably just chained to a wall somewhere and left to die at best.

Also none of these would breed, much less with a female also with autistic traits.

So it wouldn't really be a noticeable phenomenon and wouldn't be seen as differing severities of the same thing.

Fast forward to modern society where you have places like Silicon Valley where not only did autists end up millionaires, but ended up mating, often with autistic females. Suddenly there's a near epidemic of autistic children being born, often the severely autistic kind. If that theory is correct, if you have a few of the tism genes, they might come along with some obsessive interests that are actually useful to society.

If you have more, you're Chris-Chan.

And if you have even more, you're a headbanging tard raging mongo who can only be warehoused in an institution.

I read about this about 20 years ago, speculation about why there seemed to be so many profoundly autistic births in Silicon Valley, not the self-diagnosed tumblr autists who usually don't even have it at all, but the headbanging mongo kind. I don't know if that hypothesis has panned out but it seems interesting.

Exactly this. All the female autists who marry and have kids usually shack up with other autists. It's also common for mothers of autistic children to realise that they themselves are autistic after their child is diagnosed. With the internet and social media and dating sites, people are able to cast a wide net in their search for mates that share their interests and ways of thinking. Which is great for the individual, but frequently has poor outcomes for their offspring.

Pointing this out generally results in shrieks of "Ableism!" and "Eugenics!" however, from pretty much across the board.

I got into it with a close relative a ways back, when she proclaimed that, "Every woman has the right to have children, regardless of whether they're poor or disabled." Well, just recently one of her grandkids was showing signs that he's got a fairly severe autism, and his parents are grief stricken because they don't know if their much loved, beautiful baby boy will ever be fully independent. I didn't win that argument; genetics did. If you want to know how your kids are going to turn out, examining the family tree is a good place to start.


Autistic traits and things like psychopathy persist in the human population because in very specific circumstances, they are useful to the overall species survival, even as they're detrimental to the individual and/or the individuals around them. Some forms of bipolar disorder result in insanely productive people, and there's an ongoing argument that things like dyslexia and ADHD are actually good traits for a successful hunter-gatherer. However, these traits are great only in moderation, and those people who suffer from severe forms should be removed from the breeding population, because between genetics and the impaired functioning from the parent, their kids are pretty much fucked from the get go.