2 Wk Window to Discuss Here 2 Autism Documentaries

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Maybe the functional value of putting people on a spectrum is to emphasize the similarities, and by association, the similarities to non-autistic people. There is a line I like from the movie 'wretches and jaberers', "more like you than not".
Many people who cannot speak can write very eloquently.
There is so much variation among individual people on the spectrum, both low functioning and high functioning, and that is why it makes more sense to think of it in terms of a spectrum. The similarities, along with the differences, are prevalent from one end of the spectrum to the other.

It's the same disease. It's the same old problem, don't associate me with those dummies. Nobody ever wants to call mild diabetes and severe diabetes by two different names.

For awhile, I was interested in autistic culture, like the blogs where people post things and people comment on posts about autism-related issues, and website like thinking person's guide to autism where various people post, but over time, I found that autistic culture was system of the "correct" beliefs that you were supposed to have with even a bunch of buzzwords that you were supposed to use, and I was not interested anymore.

Marybird wrote:

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That's a long two weeks littlebee.

I know, ha ha. What happened is that this thread got picked up by a major search engine and jumped up a few thousand hits in a day or so, though previously the volume was (and now again is kind of low) , so I decided to stick with it and will eventually be extending some shorter videos that are available online, plus these original two videos will eventually come back on line.......Yes, time can be interesting...one person called it "the unique subjective..."

I think the only functional value it was intended to have was for medical and diagnostic reasons, and that's why it was lumped together as a spectrum.
I do understand what you mean. Apart from the intended reasons, it may cause confusion because the two subgroups present differently.
But are you saying that it is the label of autism that doesn't have qualitative value in the way it is applied to a spectrum, or is it people's understanding of the label, or something else?

It is believed that autistic special interest is a perseveration caused by autistic brain structure and wireing that autistic people are born with.

Marybird wrote:

I am going to continue this discussion of this other thread: Playing The Autism Card May Be Harmful To Humanity http://www.wrongplanet.net/postx240900- ... tml.,These two treads are meant to be read in conjunction, this thread here being kind of supplementary material to help clarify some of the material on that one.

Replies to Marybird and also Btbnnyr:

My experience the first few years was in person at some kind of aspie functions. In the beginning it was very exciting, even thrilling, as I felt I was with brains like my own, but then I found they were genrerally on a different tape. My main motivation was to enquire deeply with them into the nature of autism,and easrly on I became interested in how it relates to intelligence---if becoming able to able to be myself and to function in synch with that would it make me smarter---answer discovered (not there but by participating actively here)---yes, yes, yes!!!-- but there was all this talk about nt's and also a lot of what I perceived as self-centered focus--I came here to enquire into that. This is a rich environment with many smart people, but the thing is, imo, to dedicate oneself to using this opportunity actively and not for an escape..

Marybird wrote:
Thanks. I think it might be ifruitful to look at this word, perseveration:http://www.thefreedictionary.com/perseveration. I would like to enquire into this, and any comments would be appreciated. It seems to me that having a special interest is a rather clever way to avoid emotional suffering, and a smart, sensitive young person would be more likely to use this kind of activity as a protective device, plus, speaking from personal experience, it is really interesting to do that:-) However, and this is kind of fascinating, if you just look at the symptom and categorize the perspn according to this and some other similar factors, then it kind of cuts the person out, plus it does not encourage the person to look at himself, but rather to just look at these symptoms and place himself into this kind of category and then have all kinds of feelings about it, so it is kind of putting and/or keeping oneself in a little room. There is no way to go through. Especially if the child is very sensitive and creative, what is called gifted (though of course each child is gifted in his own unique way), this kind of labeling could have a profound affect upon humanity, especially if a lot of the behavior is happening not because of genetics but because certain kinds of social conditions that ooriginally supported and even were advantageous to this kind of brain function are breaking down.

I am particularly interested in autistic intelligence/cognition, and my special interest is that, and I am pursuing for my education/career for life.

As for why pursue special interest so intensely, I don't think that it is protective device from emotional suffering in my case, but more like special interest is pure joy for me, using iBrain, figuring things out, making things that work, wooooooo!

I am interested in this kind of thing, too, in my case not so much autistic intelligence alone, but human intelligence and brain function, and I have the same feeling about my special interest---it is thrilling, especially when I discover something new.....I am not talking about you, necessarily, as each person is unique, but, from a psychological perspective, do you think it could be both a protective device and also thrilling? I will not comment yet on what I think about this. Also, most people who have a special interest probably experience it as, well interesting:-) and even joyful.

So is something off about the way various psychologists are categorizing this as a disorder? I think there is, but also I think there is something to it. For instance, a special interest can become an addiction to the extent that it interferes with normal functioning, though it could still be thrilling--f-or instance, and just postulating, like when a shot of heroin enters ones vein. Also, a whole kind of gratifying social system and process disorder can evolve around getting the heroin. I guess I will give my own personal experience as an example, though no time right now...

It is not protective device in my case, as my current/forever special interest has caused me to leave my comfort zone into multiple forays into unknown, as I can't pursue my interest alone in my room, but must go out into world, interact with others a lot, learn new ways of thinking and doing, to do it for education/career, and these forays are things that I wouldn't do unless intense pursuit of special interest were there to drive me.

There can be different types of special interests, ones that are pursued as protective device alone in own room for hours and hours and interfering with functioning like school and work responsibilities, and there can be others, also pursued alone in own room for hours and hours, but also including doing something in outside world, interacting with people, creating useful things, and both can be what person does most of time, pursuing intensely.

With my special interst I also had to leave my comfort zone and had to interact with people, but finally my perceprion was too alienated from the other people's perception.
My special interest was ballet for almost 20 years, but I had to learn that I cannot follow what people are expecting from me, I do not like being touched, I perceive music differently than others (I have absolute pitch, but own dynamics), I cannot pretend to "be someone or thing else than I am" I cannot follow other people's movement and things which do not come into my mind now.
I can only work on myself, that worked meaning if a choreographer wanted me I had to work independantly and show him/her the result, I get meltdowns with interference.
Now I enjoy having a studio I can daily perform my training in all by myself and following my own rhythm.
I really enjoy this hours and I do not get into sensory overload anymore when I take the tram to get there as I know the outcoming.

to littlebee: I tried to watch the documentaries you linked in the beginning when you first posted this thread, but it was not available in my country to watch.

Hi Eloa. Sorry you did not get to watch the videos. Also, as I recall, I think you left a message on the autism card thread which I did not yet get a chance to respond to---sorry about that, but I got so many responses in the beginning I was overwhelmed. Anyway, it is not necessary to have seen those videos to participate here, as any part of those videos I mention I will give background for that should be sufficient to understand what I am saying.. If you or anyone know of some other videos, especially shorter ones, that are accessible to more people, please pm me the links and maybe we can use that material here.

Re special interests, I think there is also the repetition brain function which can play into it, In my case this is very true,at least. The problem is, as btbnnyr seems to have pointed out, it is hard to make certain kinds of divisions in regard to brain function so as to sort and grade various human beings.

I think in pre industrial revolution times society used to give more support not to imply that conditions were any better than then they are now. It was just different. For instance one object was not the same as many pbjects.. One thing meant more as there was a craft to making it, and each person had his own place around making things work, and that was honored, though many people were treated cruelly and left out, so again not to imply that things were necessarily better, but in some ways they were..

About high functioning/low functioning thing, so far science hasn't understood much about cognition along the whole spectrum, but only in high functioning group, as low functioning group is rarely studied.

(change topic)
The nature of my special interests changed a lot from childhood to adulthood.

As child, my special interests were all about building things and drawing things, and enjoyment of repetition was big part of it, since I liked to build and draw variations on same themes.

Then, as older child/teenager, my special interests became about acquiring knowledge on topics like when I read the whole science section of library, but I didn't talk about them much like asperger stereotype of little professor.

Now, as adult, my special interests are all about doing something new, like testing and creating things in areas where knowledge has run out.