This Week in WTF?

It's been a busy week.

Article: Seeing the Spectrum by Steve Shapin, TheNewYorker.com

In a Different Key

First there's been a good deal of discussion the last couple of days about the new book, In a Different Key: The Story of Autism by John Donvan and Caren Zucker. I haven't read it yet, but Ari did.

In Ari Ne'eman's Vox article, he compared In a Different Key with Steve Silberman's NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity and remarked, "If Silberman’s NeuroTribes serves as an indictment of the past 50 years of autism history, Zucker and Donvan have appointed themselves as passionate counsel for the defense."

Please see the Vox article for more. Ne'eman did a great job of breaking it all down.

Here's a brief interview with the authors.

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What is Autism - The New Yorker Article

Now we have another article looking at the history of autism, released on Jan 25th at The New Yorker. This one I did read and I really don't know what to think. I keep hoping I am reading it wrong, or just not 'getting it'. But parts of the article seem really... WTF'ish.


Some highlights include: (emphasis mine)

The world has always been unpredictable and disorderly, and some people have always found its ways unbearable. But there hasn’t always been autism—or its related categories, Asperger’s syndrome and (the current official term) autism-spectrum disorder. Autism was discovered, and given its identity as a discrete pathological condition, by two physicians working independently of each other during the Second World War.

There hasn't always been autism? Source please. This is one I am wondering if I am reading wrong. Does the author think autism is a new condition of modern times, or does he mean we didn't always have a word for it?

It’s a searing experience to have a child who doesn’t talk, who doesn’t want to be touched, who self-harms, who demands a regularity and an order that parents can’t supply, whose eyes are not windows to their souls but black mirrors.

This one inspired the graphic above. All I could say is WTF?!?!?

If you are “on the spectrum,” you may never feel that you are like other people, but with therapy you may learn to seem so, and that can count for much.

This one too, had me yelling at my poor monitor. How dismissive. To think that with extensive therapy, I can learn to pretend to be like the weird people around me and that, more than anything else I do in life, is what really matters. That is what I hear when I read this.

No thank you.


http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/01/25/seeing-the-spectrum

Additional Reading

The errors — and revelations — in two major new books about autism
Ari Ne'eman, 01/21/2016, Vox.com
http://www.vox.com/2016/1/21/10801846/autism-in-a-different-key

Was Dr. Asperger A Nazi? The Question Still Haunts Autism
Steve Silberman, 01/26/2016, NPR.org
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/01/20/463603652/was-dr-asperger-a-nazi-the-question-still-haunts-autism?live=1


The Vindicated Parents - A history of autism hints at why the vaccination scare has taken hold so firmly
Laura Miller 01/26/2016, Slate.com
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2016/01/in_a_different_key_a_history_of_autism_by_john_donvan_and_caren_zucker_reviewed.html

NeuroTribes vs In a Different Key

Please see this article by Ari Ne'eman over at the Vox. He contrasts two recent book about autism: Steve Silberman's NeuroTribes and the recently released In a Different Key: The Story of Autism by John Donvan and Caren Zucker.

If Silberman’s NeuroTribes serves as an indictment of the past 50 years of autism history, Zucker and Donvan have appointed themselves as passionate counsel for the defense.

The errors — and revelations — in two major new books about autism

http://www.vox.com/2016/1/21/10801846/autism-in-a-different-key

Follow the story on Twitter and Facebook under #InADifferentKey.

I'm Not Autistic in the Woods

There is some division in the autistic community about whether autism is a disability or just a different ability. In my opinion, it is both.

I first noticed that my autism did not feel like a disability when I started hiking on weekends. When I am alone in the woods, I don't feel autistic, and by that, I mean disabled. Suddenly, my hyper-awareness of sounds, smells, movement, and light makes sense. It's as if my senses were designed to excel in an environment where noticing every little thing going on around me aids in my survival, rather than causing me pain and anxiety.

It made me start wondering if at one time, autistic neurology was the norm, and then as people started moving towards more densely populated communities, natural selection started to favor what is now known as 'normal' neurology. It does seems like a possibility. Because it seems that 'normal' people have very dull senses. They don't seem to be able to hear the buzz of the lights or notice that they are flickering wildly. They don't seem to notice that one light is pulsing bluish while the other is pulsing orangish, and it is extremely distracting because they are sitting side-by-side.

Allistics seem to have a need for constant social feedback, because they don't seem to be able to see all those micro-muscle twitches that we do, so they don't know when someone is paying attention to them. They have a constant need for eye contact because their world is centered around a culture of 'white lies' so they never know when to trust each other.

I started to think about a question I heard that asked, 'What is the difference between an plant and a weed?" The answer, "A weed is just a plant out of place." I often feel that way with my autism. I am very functional in the woods, or when I am alone working on code. In those times, I feel like my autism gives me superpowers. But in a social environment, or when I have to try to work in a loud, busy office I am definitely out of place and disabled.