Asperger's Diary

Navigating in the "normal" world, for a person with Asperger's, can be difficult, if not downright painful.  The most difficult area for me to handle, personally, is rejection.  While some people with autism or Asperger's report a reduced desire for human attachment, the reality for many of us is to want it very much, but struggle to achieve it. 

In her recent post The Art of Neurodiversity, fellow PT blogger Cathy Malchiodi discusses the work of Stephen Wiltshire, an artist with autism known for his remarkable talent for duplicating scenes with photographic accuracy.

Ms. Malchiodi asks the very real question - should any type of diagnosis, psychological or neurological, come into play when looking at art, or is art just art?

Presuppositions.  We all know what they are -- but what part do they play in our interactions?  

Any member of a minority group will tell you stories in which they felt that they have been unfairly stereotyped - in which the other person made a presupposition about their character dependent on certain criteria - be it age, gender, race, or some other factor.

These are obvious cases of presuppositions impacting our social interaction.  But are there situations in which presuppositions more subtly impact interactions?

Unless a person personally knows someone with autism or Asperger's (and has experienced just what we can do), the first thing that doesn't jump to mind isn't talent, it's disability.  It's what people with autism or Asperger's Syndrome can't do, not what they can.  HBO's recent documentary Autism: The Musical, follows a mother's quest to challenge those pre-suppositions, both for her child and others like him.

So, overall, what does it mean to have Asperger’s? How does it affect how a person interacts with the world? What are the challenges?

Caustic comments, humiliating putdowns, callous behavior.  Lately, mainstream media seems to depict the worst in human nature. 

Are conditions like autism and Asperger's Syndrome truly disorders, or necessary variations in human development?

In her book, Thinking in Pictures, Temple Grandin Ph.D., a noted animal scientist, and author with autism, dedicated a chapter of her book, "Einstein's Second Cousin," to exploring the genetics of autism. In it, she speculates that the clusters of genes that cause such differences as autism, manic-depression, and schizophrenia are the same that carry traits such as creativity, or mathematical talent.