I'm able to "read" people...

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For a time I believed I could not "read" people (identify their personality traits, emotions, or likely intentions from their behaviour, including non-verbal cues). Then recently during counseling I brought this up, and my counselor identified several instances in which I correctly "read" someone. I was quite surprised.

What is happening, is I have learned to instinctively read some cues, from the experience of my brother's mean behaviour (when we were little kids) or my parents fighting or being bullied at school, as a protective mechanism, and in childhood from hanging back and observing situations to see what is happening. I got confused sometimes, for example when someone lied and contradicted what I was reading, or I was under pressure and didn't have time to process what I read. Because of this and stuff like poor self-esteem, I stopped listening to my instincts, and when I met other aspies stating they couldn't read people I believed that applied to me too.

I'm learning to listen to these instincts more, and I am finding it helps me to socialise better and avoid bad people better. Having better self esteem helps too.

And I don't think this makes me a "fake" aspie. I still have fundamental issues common to people with Asperger's.

Being unable to "read" people, isnt one of the DEFINING traits of Aspergers, its a grouping of difficulties operating on a spectrum, in my case my "reading" ability of people is purely analytical, however some Aspies will rely on analysis less, or more than me.

Its more "do oyu have most of the Aspie traits to some degree" than "must have this abnd this and this".

dont sweat it.

I understand you, I think this is a positive breakthrough for me.

With "fake" aspies, I think we need to be more careful with that label - there is over-diagnosis, yes, but mislabeling someone is harmful.

One of the "uncanny" abilities I've thought I've had over time is the ability to read people's personality types and motivations. At least for a long time, it seemed that way to me. I based that on the "fact" that whatever first impressions I got of people, even though I always gave everyone the benefit of the doubt, almost always turned out to be right.

I'm not talking about specific situations though, where reading expressions and/ or body language are involved. I've always sucked at that. I'm talking about an intuitive impression I'd get of people withing the first few moments of observing them (as opposed to actually meeting them, because I've always been a stand-off guy until I've had a chance to "take the intuitive reading").

Looking back now though, I'm beginning to suspect that it may not necessarily have been that I was ever reading anyone "correctly," but that I it may have been my own actions and reactions with respect to them that "brought out" exactly what I thought of them, out of them. My thinking now is more along those lines. I think there's something about the way I acted toward them that either brought out the best or the worst in them, depending on what my supposed intuition was.

In other words, if I thought, "Hey, that guy's a real jerk!" I probably acted like a jerk toward him, and he probably reacted in kind, thus supposedly validating my own faulty intuition. Or, if I though, "Hey now, there's a guy that's pretty cool! I think I can get along with him!" I probably acted far more accepting, thus bringing out the best in him, thus again validating my supposed intuition.

In the end, I'm not so sure I've ever "read" anyone very accurately, from first impressions onward. In fact, I think I can now safely say that I probably never read well even some of my own best friends, none of whom I've not even seen in many years now.

Reading people and picking up on their body language, is actually one of my strengths.

I dont read body language correctly. Ive been told when people lean into you this means they are comfortable with you. This makes me nervous and threatened, I never thought of it the way it is meant to be perceived.
Also I only recognize facial expressions: happy-smiling and sad-crying. Anything in between I perceive as anger or being upset. I also do not produce the correct facial expressions as people ask me "whats wrong?" when Im fine and dont ask me when Im upset or in the middle of a panic attack.
Before I was diagnosed and things were explained to me I used to get so angry that people did not come to comfort me when I was upset. It was because they didnt know until things built up and I had a meltdown, then they all thought I was over reacting to the trigger that set me off.

Actually knowing that I have AS and learning all these things have helped me so much with my anger and resentment. However, I still do not read people. I do understand my kids who have Autism and I learn things about people that I am close to because I have studied them.

When I read people, I go for some sort of penetrating gaze, while looking into the eyes. You can easily tell what they are feeling just by doing that, at least until they start giving the confused look, thinking, "Why are you staring at me?" Most people don't even realize what you've found out already, or even if you've found sometihng that connects the two of you emotionally.

A few things I came across are: Extreme depression, hatred, Loyalty, vengence, and several others.

One of the things i came across, though only once or twice, was the feeling of "why the f... am I here?" Usually it's tied to a bit of confusion along w/ a bit aof anger.

Though this technique works great on the general public, it doesn't really work on those w/ few showable emotions, or those with emotional disorders.

As far as I can tell, few people can hide their emotions from this, being as when I ask whats bothering them, they sometimes have a bit of a shocked look on their face. if they have tried to cut off their emotions, they may think really wierd things, and ask about all kinds of random things, most of which most wouldn't care about. I know this because I actually listen to them and provide input, along with things that could be possible. I guess I got off topic... Oh well.

I can occasionally read people: I've learned to read disapproval like a pro; I should know, I get it all the time!

I can usually tell positive interactions from negative ones, but find it hard to determine the finer points of others beyond that.
When in doubt, I usually assume the interaction is negative though.

I don't always pick up on the emotions or body language of the moment, but I use my intellect and personal experience to guage what somebody is thinking and feeling. Another guage that I use is how people who are associated with that person treat me.