What makes someone AS rather than having an INTJ personality

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To answer the original question:
I think many Aspies are not INTJ's. I am an INXP---with a lot of "feeling" traits.
Essentially, INTJ's who are not Aspie would not have the sensory overload, the sensitivity to touch and environmental factors that Aspies do. Nuroal-typical INTJ's have an easier time with eye contact and have the ability to develop social networks---they may just not have any need/ want to.
Aspies of any Meyers-Briggs type (INFP, INTP, ENFP, INTJ, ISTJ, etc) can want to have close friends and a social network, but don't quite have the brain-wiring that promotes face-to-face networking/ circle of friends/ etc.

INTJ's who are not Aspie have normal brain-wiring. Aspies, no matter what their Meyers-Briggs type, don't have "normal" (neural typical) brain-wiring.

I'm going to respectfully disagree in that I don't think that much of modern psychology is that much better than astrology either!

I mean, if we put aside the hocus pocus about stars, astrology might have some pretty good insight about how some personality traits tend to go together.

And, on the other side of the coin, what I pull from DSM (plus my own reading and life experience) is that the Asperger's-Autism Spectrum tends to have four aspects:

1) ability to fall into intellectual or artistic interests,
2) a lot of social interaction feeling like a second language (even though I often very much want interaction and the lonelies can hit me pretty hard),
3) sensory issues, and
4) stimming.

Not every autistic person has all four. And many 'normal' persons (no such thing as 'normal' anyway! ) can and do have some of these traits. For example, a lot of people may rhymically move a leg during a math test.

And I think . . . that's it. Once you strip off the fancy-spancy technical terms that DSM seems to like to include, that seems to be about the extent of it (in fact, I kind of think I've improved upon it).

I do believe in anti-depressants.

I've experienced and struggled with bouts of depression, have not yet tried antidepressants, but they're kind of my Ace for the future.

The first one may not work (everyone's biochem a little different). My personal plan is 5 months, 5 antidepressants (potentially). And I've also read that it's important to sometimes step down from an antidepressant in stages even if it doesn't seem to be working.

This is a bridge between psychology and medicine, to the credit of both.

What's not so helpful is a defiinition of depression using a lot of fancy spancy academic terms.

On face validity, there is some overlap between INTP (and INTJ) and the Autism Spectrum. However, one can fall under one category and not under the other.

That is an interesting thread. From the other perspective. INTJs putting two and two together.
To be pedantic (an AS or INTJ trait) I originally stated "about 3%" which is within the official range. So it may be as high as 4% or as low as 2% of the general population.

As far as Aspies that are INTJ, there is at least one survey done on WP at http://www.wrongplanet.net/postx143067-45-0.html. from a sample size of 153, INTJ = 36%, INTP = 26%, ISTJ = 14%. The rest are all below 10%; with ESTJ, ESFJ, ISFJ and ESTP scoring 0.

Sorry to nitpick, but a horoscope makes statements about someone's personality based on his/her birthdate, while the personality test makes statements about someone's personality based on... his/her own statements about it. One gives (presumably) random information that may be vague enough to apply to anyone, the other gives back the same information you put into it (not that this is much more useful). The comparison implies that someone who says:

"I am introverted because I need a lot of time alone"

makes no more sense than someone who says

"I am creative because I was born in March"

Anyway, in response to the OP: since they are both based on a list of statements about one's personality and experience, more or less, technically we can say they differ insofar as those statements differ, which is actually quite a bit. For instance, I do think there seem to be "extroverted" aspies around, even if they're unusual - the ones who are most distressed by lack of social contact and maybe go to greater lengths to learn social skills; ability to socialize and desire to socialize are two different things. Of course, it's questionable how meaningful the dichotomies in Myers Briggs are - they could be easily deconstructed, and so could the divide between Asperger's and NT, but as for how they match up, from what I've seen there are quite a few aspie INTPs (my type) and a smattering of other types as well. If it was completely unrelated you wouldn't expect it to skew this way, but I have to wonder how meaningful the personality test results are for aspies as well. Would an "extroverted aspie" score as introverted because of bad past experiences, for instance, or a "feeling aspie" cultivate the "thinking" trait to fit into geek culture?

ETA: Haha, I just realized I said "from what I've seen" when the previous poster had just linked some stats. Ok then!

Sometimes right after I post something my thoughts become a bit clearer.

So, what I mean to say is: there are so many variables that go into a person's description of his/her own experiences and preferences that our starting point has to be something like "why are people who are diagnosed with Asperger's far more likely than NTs to identify with statements corresponding the "introverted", "intuitive" and "thinking" MBTI functions?"

There are plenty of other sites with descriptions, this just where I happened to land today:
http://www.personalitypathways.com/type_inventory.html

Introverted Characteristics

Think/reflect first, then Act

Regularly require an amount of "private time" to recharge batteries

Motivated internally, mind is sometimes so active it is "closed" to outside world

Prefer one-to-one communication and relationships

The first, second, and fourth will apply to anyone who finds social interaction difficult for whatever reason, and the third, well, sounds very AS-like.

Looking at the sensing vs. intuitive characteristics, though, if anything sensing seems to overlap more with AS characteristics, for instance:

Memory recall is rich in detail of facts and past events

Like clear and concrete information; dislike guessing when facts are "fuzzy"

It's pretty clear why people on the spectrum would be unlikely to identify as "feeling", though:

Instinctively employ personal feelings and impact on people in decision situations

and

Naturally sensitive to people needs and reactions.

These pretty much contradict the diagnosis.

I have often wondered about the connection between personality and the autism spectrum. When I first learned about Asperger's, I wondered if I might be on the high end of the spectrum, but the more I learn, the more I think I am just shy and can sometimes have difficulty socializing in large groups. For me, the distinction comes with the neurological indicators of Asperger's that would not be present with a difference in personality such as possible hypersensitivity to sensory stimuli, potential attention difficulties, trouble with facial/emotional recognition and/or expression, etc. I do recognize that I am completely biased, though, since I am training to be a clinical psychologist.

That being the case, I do agree with other people who have posted that the Myers-Briggs is not the best measure of personality. While it can be interesting, it is one of the least reliable measures. I think this is partly why many people distrust psychologists because some people use measures like this and make vast generalities that may not apply to every person, may not take into consideration cultural or environmental factors, or may not even be accurate at all. Even universally used categories such as those in the DSM are not always agreed upon and determining whether someone meets diagnostic criteria can sometimes be somewhat subjective depending on interpretation.

Regarding the DSM, I had a final thought on the relationship between personality and AS which could potentially be very controversial. Currently, the various autism spectrum "disorders" are listed on "Axis I" where things like depression, anxiety, and the large majority of other "disorders" are placed. "Axis II" is where personality "disorders" and "mental retardation" are listed. While I recognize that there are imperfections in the diagnostic system and that it can sometimes be very stigmatizing, if the DSM is used, I wonder whether autism spectrum "disorders" would make more sense on "Axis II"? I ask this because it seems to me that many people who identify as being on the spectrum say that even though they may have learned how to act "normal", they still have many differences from NTs and that AS is something that is part of who they are. This is how I understand the "disorders" on "Axis II" to be.