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The Little Prince: a glimpse into the world of autism?

Both simple and complex, The Little Prince (a book written by Antoine de Saint-Exupery in 1943) has intrigued readers for nearly 75 years. Although innocently presented as a children’s book, Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s novella is one of the best-selling, most widely interpreted books ever published. Its deeper meaning has been scrutinised by scholars over the decades. In this paper, we suggest one more interpretation of the beloved classic: to promote a broader understanding of people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), particularly those with what used to be known as Asperger syndrome (AS). Illustrating similarities between the Little Prince (a fictional character in the book The Little Prince ) and children with ASD may enable those less familiar with neurodevelopmental disorders to better relate to young people on the autism spectrum. To our knowledge, no other published reports have addressed the relationship between the Little Prince and AS.

In 1944, Hans Asperger, a Viennese paediatrician, described four children as ‘little professors’ with ‘autistic personality disorder.’1 These children were naive, absorbed in circumscribed interests and egocentric in their social interactions. Despite age-appropriate grammar and vocabulary, their talk was repetitive with unusual intonation patterns, odd body language and poor motor coordination. These shared features became collectively known as AS.2 In the most recent revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders , AS was subsumed under the umbrella term ASD.3 ASD includes impairments in social communication and interactions, as well as restrictive, repetitive or stereotypic patterns of behaviour. Regardless of the future for AS as a valid and meaningful clinical construct, its short existence has had an undeniable impact on public interest in autism.4 

In order to reduce reader confusion, the term AS has been used predominantly throughout this manuscript.

The basic premise of The Little Prince involves a pilot, …