A Radical New Autism Theory

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www(dot)thedailybeast(dot)com/articles/2009/05/11/a-radical-new-autism-theory.html

What are your thoughts on this? I've always been confused, trying to figure out if I have autism or not, and the only reason I've disregarded it in the past is because of the idea of not being empathetic. Maybe I really am autistic, after all.

I always thought the no empathy thing was horse doody, I do have empathy but it is a sort of individualized empathy.

While other people have a sort of societal empathy, like a reality they all agree to.

Correct. Societal empathy is not concerned with the wellbeing of individuals, but with conformance with the established social structure. The underlying assumption is that people care more about their social status than about most other things in life. Thus questioning of authority, pointing out mistakes (especially in the presence of a so-called authority), and even simply being creative (offering an alternative point of view), are all often interpreted as a lack of empathy.

The latter point may initially seem far fetched, but I have been around long enough to be able to confirm the pattern. The following piece of research examines the issue head on: http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/c ... t=articles

Why People Desire But Reject Creative Ideas

While people strongly endorse this positive view of creativity, scholars have long been puzzled by the finding that organizations, scientific institutions, and decisions-makers routinely reject creative ideas even when espousing creativity as an important goal.

Similarly, research documents that teachers dislike students who exhibit curiosity and creative thinking even though teachers acknowledge creativity as an important educational goal.

People can hold deeply-rooted negative views of creativity that are not openly acknowledged. Revealing the existence and nature of a bias against creativity can help explain why people might reject creative ideas and stifle scientific advancement, even in the face of strong intentions to the contrary.

Because there is such a strong social norm to endorse creativity and people also feel authentic positive attitudes towards creativity, people may be reluctant to admit that they do not want creativity; hence, the bias against creativity may be particularly slippery to diagnose.

When journals extol creative research, universities train scientists to promote creative solutions, R&D companies commend the development of new products, pharmaceutical companies praise creative medical breakthroughs, they may do so in ways that promote uncertainty by requiring gate-keepers to identify the single ?best? and most ?accurate? idea thereby creating an unacknowledged aversion to creativity.

Experiments conducted by the authors conclude that people implicitly associate creativity with vomit.

Change is blocked/limited by the glacial speed of social lock-step learning wherever you look. In my experience those who talk the loudest about innovation are those who are the most scared of even the smallest change. "Innovation managers" represent the pinnacle of stagnation.

I've always believed that the whole autistic don't feel is hooey.

I always viewed autism like this autistic feel for others but often show it in ways NT don't understand
MY spectrum child is more compassionate than most of the NT I know. My child had a friend on the spectrum before we moved
who would show compassion by making sure people were not too close to the edge of a pool.

I believe that all kinds of one-size-fits-all diagnostic tests or recognized characteristics are doomed to be nothing more than informative and possibly interesting. My own empathy has always been influenced by a stronger OCD which expects certain behaviors from other individuals. While I understand the empathy that others have, I believe that I don't have it myself. My EQ factor-test score confirms my opinion about myself. However, I also see some validity in this new theory. I am interested to see it tested by other professionals.

Here's a bit of logic that most people miss in this equation.

Relative to the autistic experience, my emotions are quite neurotypical. For those with a mind apparently similar to mine, I have to consciously navigate the situation (cognitive empathy) and in the instances where I am correct it does not actually feel like something I 'know' but rather suspect strongly. My ability to empathize in this way with autistic individuals is lowered, though it very much depends how their autism has altered their thinking. Autistics with emotional/conceptual functions closer to that of a typical person I find to be as predictable as NTs, and it has in the past made me question whether or not those people actually had autism. I currently consider them to still be autistic, but there is a very noticeable difference as you stray further from NT as to how that all works.

I do not have alexithymia but I have been noted several times as having 'abnormal' emotional responses. I find that I can easily turn my emotions on or off unless it's a severe level of sadness or anxiety, and I find the rest incredibly hard to explain. The problems I have essentially negate my ability to empathize affectively at a more than superficial level with other people, but for whatever reason I feel this empathy for things like flowers or plates. I tend to rely on cognitive empathy in the social world, and have always been a more analytical introvert in demanding situations.

Last edited by Norny on 12 Nov 2014, 3:16 am, edited 1 time in total.

New studies with fMRIs show that autistic people are fully capable of empathy and engage in empathy just as often(if not more so) as NT's, but that NT's appear more empathetic because they fake it more often and more successfully because that's what society requires. Additionally, the empathetic behavior in the NT is more open and easy to see (on the other hand maybe people just don't pay attention to us...)

Additionally, NT's have difficulty empathizing with Autistic people to the same degree as they have difficulty empathizing with foreigners.

The Intense world theory is not a new theory

The first hypothesis for a intense world syndrome (2007) and later intense world theory (2010).

Anyway, I think the theory is very interesting!

So was the whole idea based on this post?

That makes sense on so many levels. Sometimes I feel like that. Does that explain my problems? It's like how some of us have auditory processing issues, it's not the same as being deaf, it's more like the opposite problem.

I can hardly hear people talk in a crowded room and then they think I'm hard of hearing but there's nothing wrong with my ears.

Sometimes I get overwhelmed by emotions, either other people's or my own. Sometimes I find it hard to read sad stories, either real or fictional, yet in strange way I'm also drawn to them. Or another problem I have with empathy is that sometimes when I hear a story, either real or fictional, I feel like there are too many different emotions at once to keep up with. They don't necessarily have to be negative emotions, it's just sometimes there are too many emotions to keep up with, or too many shades of the same emotion.

And my own emotions? You know what Spock says about having emotions so intense it's better for him to oppress them and feel nothing? Sometimes I feel like that too.

When I was in elementary school enough people complained about my "troubles" hearing I was taken to be tested to see if I was hard of hearing. At times I wouldn't hear the lunch lady call my name in crowded/noisy rooms and I would often ask people to repeat what they said. When I had my hearing tested by a professional they put me in a soundproof room with headphones, played different frequency tones, and I would raise my hand to indicate which ear I heard the tone. They concluded I had above average ability to hear.

It was frustrating to have people think I was hard of hearing when I knew I wasn't. It was sort of vindicating to have the test results show I could hear just fine though.

The intense world theory is interesting and it seems to have some merit to it. I can definitely relate and would like to see it explored more.

Yeah, sometimes I've felt like that but sometimes if it was someone who doesn't already know me I've felt relieved because I think "good, they think I'm hard of hearing, now I don't have to explain why I can't hear them when I'm not hard of hearing".

Also when I was younger I had this habit of rewinding video tapes and watching the same line over and over again because there where a few lines in every film that I just couldn't understand. It really annoyed my family.