obsession with parts of objects--What is does that mean?

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When I was young I would focus on parts of objects, although I didn't know that this was unusual behavior.... for example, the knobs and dials on radios and TV sets; the black line that continually circles inside an electricity meter (this dates me, I know!); and the picture tube in our old TV (I tried to figure out how the TV people got inside those things, when I was about 2 years old). I guess I was also interested in buttons and zippers on clothing.

now that i think of it i do look at certain things a little too much especially cracks in the sidewalk and in anything else

When very young, I used to be fascinated by the windshield wipers of real cars and of the wheels of my toy cars. These days I can listen to a long piece of music just to hear one phrase in it that I particularily love - and then this one phrase will play in my mind for the whole day.

I hallucinate specks of light as "parts" of my field of vision. They look just like mathematical points.

I wouldn't be surprised if we are more concerned with ourselves as part of the world than the world as a whole, as part of our inborn egocentric dispositions.

It's not like houses from that era are gone! Until recently, I lived somewhere with a lovely spinning dial tracking electricity usage

Elsewhere (another thread) you mention being able to think in 2-D but not in 3-D. That makes total sense to me, though it's tough to explain. I can draw on paper, but have no imagination, visualization, nor inspiration when it comes to creating a sculpture, for instance. I just go blank, like a fuzzy tv screen. I can do nifty doodles because they're on a flat sheet of paper, but my brain feels unable to make that leap into all 3 dimensions in order to mentally assemble an object.
In art school, I had mandatory 3-D design classes & most of the assignments were so unappealing & baffling that I would get in arguments w/teacher & cry (out of sight) because I couldn't understand most of the directions, and what I could understand still made no sense in terms of my initiating some activity. In theory I "get" the idea someone's telling me, but cannot apply it in practice, to turn it into a plan to actually follow through on.
My boyfriend makes origami (3-D folding), a hobby I'm neither willing nor able to do. I draw mazes (2-D scribbling), which I enjoy & am skilled at.

Seems entirely possible/likely, at least for some of us.
Focus on parts of things means to me (from the saying "can't see the forest for the trees") seeing the tree or trees but not the forest overall, as a whole. I notice many little things but can't seem to integrate them, I get hung up on some seemingly minor detail that I cannot ignore/move past/get beyond. I get mired in or fascinated by miniscule aspects of situation or circumstances & am rarely able to get the distance to perceive the "big picture".

Sounds unflattering to admit, but I'd agree this is true of me. Also believe (whether or not they realize it or would even admit it) this is the case for most living organisms/creatures-including humans (not just those of us who are diagnosed with brain or body differences). Have to put myself first because no other being could or would do so (and the same can be said for each other individual, makes sense to me that each person is the center of his/her own universe).

Shades of Joe Dirt!

I think this means the idea of examining even simple things to death. It makes sense, as most babies do this, and autistics seem to have a lot of things left over from childhood. With ME it might be hinges, pens(push buttons, etc...), Circuit boards, etc... Sometimes I catch myself looking at the SIMPLEST things for a lot longer than I logically should.

Steve

I don't think i have a preoccupation with parts of objects but i might. When i first read about preoccupation from the DSM iv i didn't know what it meant but the first thing that popped into my mind was the way i use to hold just the buckle part of a seat belt when i was making the long drive from my dad's to my mom's in high school. I would hold it with my right hand for pretty much the whole 14 hour drive, if i took my hand away and tried to hold the steering wheel with two hands or put my hand on my knee, within a minute my hand would be holding the buckle part of the seat belt.
But after reading a bunch of posts on what it really means ive learned that i don't have a preoccupation with parts of objects.

Obsessions with parts of objects....
examples;

*A wheel instead of the whole car
*A petal instead of the whole flower
*A part of a song instead of the whole song.
etc.


when I was younger [under 4 years old] I used to sit infront of the television and repetidley push the button to change the channel. I also used to have a toy train in which I was fascinated mainly by the doors, opening and closing them repetidley.

I do...but as a PC tech, I'm paid to...

I do fine with 3d, but I get in trouble when someone wants me to pick up something; because I can see 6 different ways to do it...

I've read that it's more common in low-functioning autistics. It means you might focus on the wheels of a car moving instead of the whole car. At a more conceptual level, it can refer to focusing on a very specific aspect of, say, history. It emphasizes the detail-over-gestalt cognitive style of the autistic mind.

I think what it means is autistic people often take in different aspects of our environment than non-autistic people do. When we pretty consistently don't obsess on the same aspects of objects they do, then it's called "persistent preoccupation with parts of objects" or something like that.

An example I like to use, is it's supposedly okay to read books, but if a person spends a lot of time smelling them or rubbing them on their face (despite the fact that non-autistic people also sometimes do these things) then it's paying attention to the "wrong" aspect of them.

I love jewelry, I wear a lot of costume jewelry when I go out and if someone has a big bracelet or pin or rings or something that catches my attention, it's all I'll look at! Sometimes I even comment on it and say "I love that (piece of jewelry)!"

When I watch my Transformers movie, I love to stare at Optimus Prime's mouth *giggles*