A Spectrum Is Haunting Europe

[supergee]

I have spent years wondering if I am autistic, even though I have a Theory of Mind and can pass for neurotypical in many social situations. For one thing, I have a number of other issues that are often labeled autistic, such as attention deficiency, dyspraxia, hypersensitivity, and an approach based on living in my mind and dealing with the world, rather that living directly in the world. Rebecca Burgess shows us that a spectrum is not more-or-less, the way the autistic one is usually described.

Thanx to Metafilter


Almost forgot: This post on Status 451 seems to cover some of the same questions. (Technical math terminology warning. And I am perversely amused by a measure of autism based on the mathematics of Paul Dirac.)

Comments

[arlie]

I love that Rebecca Burgess comic. Thank you.

On a semi-related note - what is it with "theory of mind" anyway? I've never met an autistic person who either claimed to lack theory of mind, or who appeared from their statements and behaviour to lack theory of mind - well, barring infants too young to (probably) have such complex cognition and (certainly) communicate about it - or be diagnosed autistic for that matter.

What I see is that a lot of allists lack theory of different minds - they know what someone's behaviour means, with absolute certainty, to the point of telling the person acting not just their "real" intentions, but also their "real" feelings. Whereas those with minority cognitive styles are forced to learn how to make this kind of interpretations for people who function differently than them, get it wrong a lot, and, I suspect, thereby display (to the allists) that they "have no idea" that other people have minds, feelings, etc. This is just as much BS as the "fact" that attempts to avoid overstimulation indicate dislike and rejection of the person wishing to interact, and statements to the contrary are merely polite little white lies.

[supergee]

I'm getting corrections on the Theory of Mind stuff over on lj. I'm going to do a follow-up post.

[arlie]

I may have to resubscribe to you on LJ, just for the comments.