Infantile autism or infantile psychoses.

Until recently the situation in relation to childhood psychoses was extremely confused. There was little agreement among authors about terminology and a general uncertainty about their nature and aetiology. Masterly reviews by Eisenberg' 2 in the United States and Rutter' in the United Kingdom have brought some order to this complex field. Perhaps the most important contribution was the introduction of a simple subclassification of psychotic disorders. 6 Anthony proposed three major groups of psychoses, based on the clinical features and the age of the child. Group I had an early onset and a slow chronic course; Group II an onset from 3 to 5 years of age with an acute course followed by regression; and Group III an onset later than 5 and a fluctuating subacute course. For practical purposes only two of the above three clinical groups of childhood psychoses merit elaboration in any detail. The first is that syndrome which has an onset in the first or right up to the end of the second year of life*2 which was