Grunya Sukhareva

Lore & Background

Grunya Yefimovna Sukhareva was born to parents Khaim Faitelevich and Rakhila Iosifovna Sukhareva on November 11th, 1891 in Kyiv, Russian Empire. She studied medicine at the Kyiv Medical Institute, earning her medical degree in 1915. She worked at the institute's epidemiological unit until 1917, then as a licensed psychiatrist at the Kyiv Psychiatric Hospital until 1921. From 1919 to 1921, she served as Head of the Defectology Department at the Institute of Mental Health of Children and Adolescents.

In 1921, Sukhareva moved to Moscow, where she founded the Psycho-Neurological and Pedagogical Sanatorium School of the Institute of Physical Training and Medical Pedology. There, she conducted clinical observations of children that formed the basis of her 1925 publication on what is now known as Autism Spectrum Disorder. She published over 150 papers and several textbooks. She worked as an associate professor at Moscow's first Medical Institute in 1928, led the department of Psychiatry at Kharkiv University from 1933 to 1935, and founded a Faculty of Pediatric Psychiatry in 1935, serving as Head until 1965. She led a clinic of childhood psychosis in 1938 and worked at the Psychiatric Hospital of Kashchenko until 1969.

Reader's Guide

Sukhareva's significance lies in her pioneering identification and description of autistic traits in children, nearly two decades before the case reports of Hans Asperger and Leo Kanner. Her 1925 publication detailed six boys with what she called 'schizoid psychopathy,' and she later expanded her work to include five girls in 1927. She hypothesized a neurological basis for the syndrome, implicating the cerebellum, frontal lobe, and basal ganglia—hypotheses later confirmed by neuroimaging. She initially used the term 'schizoid psychopathy,' later replacing it with 'autistic (pathological avoidant) psychopathy.' Her work was published in Russian and German, yet remained largely uncited by Asperger and Kanner, a matter still discussed by experts. She also studied personality disorders in children, emphasizing social factors like poor family environment, and advocated for sending difficult children to medical institutions rather than prisons. The Moscow Scientific and Practical Center for Mental Health of Children and Adolescents was named after her.

Did You Know?

• Sukhareva's 1925 publication on autistic traits in children preceded the case reports of Hans Asperger and Leo Kanner by nearly two decades.
• She hypothesized a neurological basis for autism involving the cerebellum, frontal lobe, and basal ganglia, later confirmed by neuroimaging.
• Her name was transliterated as 'Ssucharewa' when her papers appeared in Germany.
• She described six boys and five girls as having what is now considered autism, including a child with exceptional memory of numbers but with face blindness.