Studies in infantile autism.

The most dominant view about the etiology of infantile autism is that it is biologically determined. None of the attributed causes have withstood the test of time. Arguments supporting the organic ideology is that parents of autistic children are not of higher SES, they seem to be adjusted and the disorder is to be found all over the world. An analysis of the literature indicates that such conclusions are open to question. Conflicting findings may be due to the fact that children that do not fulfill Kanner's criteria are included in the samples studied.