Can we own and 'take' the term 'A-Type' for ourselves?

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Ok, since the DSM is just making Asperger's vanish (which I can't stand, but is for another topic) and Autism typically has a negative connotation, I was wondering an idea I've never heard of before:

As you might know, the whole concept of an "A-Type Person" is not anything clinical, biological or psychological. It's just something in pop culture. And, it's got a relatively possible association. Maybe it's a bit obsessive, but we can be obsessive, too.

So, I was thinking, since Asperger's is now "High Functioning Autism" and they're both A's and it's got a positive association, why not take it as our own? We can't WE be "A-Type" people? Why can't Einstein and the character in "Rain Man" both be "A-Type" people? Why can't Bill Gates be a "potentially A-Type person?"

I know this is sort of PR for us, but I think it's important to get a better image of the positive side of us and contributions to mankind we give. Thoughts?

Last edited by JRR on 06 Oct 2012, 2:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.

They way to get a term adopted is to start using it.

Agreed with the term adoption, but in the end, it'll just be used as yet another label that gets a bad rep. Regardless of what we use to identify ourselves, it'll be used as a stereotype and give us a bad image by "normal" people.

So, do you like it or not?

One thing, for sure, I think it has a better ring to it, especially compared to "Auties".

"A-Types" vs "Auties"?

Is it even a contest? I really think this would be a better way to handle it.

lol I agree it sounds good, but it won't always be that way once the general population (and by that I mean "normal" people) get hold of it. They have to generalize everything to the point of stereotyping just to understand it even a little.

My blood type is A.

Why not make the word "autism" more positive, and accept that "Asperger Syndrome" is disappearing?

People have already made the word "autism" to be negative just by stereotype alone, that's not likely to change just because we want it to. Not saying it couldn't change, but "normal" people are the ones that mainly have the domain of what is considered "possitive" in society.

You know, you're right. But frankly, I don't care what people think of the word "autism", I'm still going to apply it to me, because it applies. Maybe if people realize the stereotypes are, well, stereotypes, attitudes will change.

We can hope, although I'm skeptical that people are mature enough for that though lol.

Hooomans can think whatever they want about autism. I will speak to them for many minutes whenever they say something idiotic about autism in my hearing. I will follow them into the men's bathroom to do so, but not off a cliff if they want to jump off one to end the torture of my monologue.

I like the idea of looking at it as "Types" of people. It's more about differences, rather than the "some people are broken" way of looking at things.

I've never heard of the term "A-Type Person". Is it one of them new hip teenspeak phrases, like 'swagga'?




Where I live, I'll garner more sympathy when I say I'm autistic than I would when I say I'm Antillean (i.e. from the Dutch Antilles). Yet I can't replace the word Antillean with something else, all I can do is inform people of their ignorance and hope that I help eliminate the existing prejudices that way.

When you say A-type, are you referring to the concept of "Type A personality"?

If yes, then this is actually an established (though not necessarily supported) theory in psychology to describe a personality which doesn't really fit all that well with spectrum traits. It can match in some superficial aspects, but the classic Type A is someone who is very high-powered, competitive and career/status focused.

If no, then I'm confused since I've never heard of 'A-type', but I am very familiar with 'Type A' and I think lots of people would confuse the terms if you tried to adopt the former.

A-type people will "spoil the society", once they'll find out that there is so many of them (I guess something in between 1-5 % of the population)

They are going to hate us, because we decline to follow their ideal models of society.
I wouldn't be surprised if quite a high amount of humans would carry it in their genes.

It would be nice if they'd do more research on it and find out what actually this is about.
This would be quite important to activate all the potentials that are slumbering in many aspies
that fail to find a normal life including jobs, relationships and other.

We are at the moment kicked out of the society
with all this kind of demands, work load, permanent commercial crisis
and the related stress

Not that also NTs will slowly go mad, we are the first ones that drop out.
They should understand that the way it is going now there will be very little development
with totally inefficient waste of resources.

They'll need us to get this systemizing creative impact for development anyway...

That anything is going to change? I think maybe when we are all dead.

I'd rather go for a spectrum related word. And I think it is consequent to remove all kinds of classifications that are anyway related to very broad levels of different kinds of affection.
"A-type" will be generally related to classic autism, so by choosing such a word, the prejudgment will get much worse.
And then you could relate asocial to "A-type" or a lot of other a-words, typically negative

Spectrum is also about colors, frequencies, intensities, a much more gentle word with a lot of nice associations...
In my work I used "Spectral methods" for example (not "Pseudospectral methods"). I would like to write something about spectrum into the foreword of my PHD thesis, haven't though figured out what that could be (such that only people that know about the subject would recognize it).

Well, actually, when I first heard the word I was really seeing it as some color/frequency/pattern related expression
and that's why I liked it immediately

I think we will stay with aspie anyway, and that should probably also include HFA then (the other way around).
But some additional spectrum related expression would be nice...
any ideas?