I think "autism" is the wrong title for our condition.

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IMHO the term Autism means something like "self-ism" or someone who is exclusively involved with himself (as opposed to with the world). This would mean, nothing goes in and nothing comes out (information-wise). Iformation can be anything like social stuff, speech, emotions, empathy. So nothing goes in and nothing comes out yes?
I thing that's psychiatrists BS, kind of like the 50's lobotomy helps schizophrenics BS, at least in my case.
What I'm saying is autistics, or at least me, are not "autistic" at all (in the sense of the word).
In my case, EVERYTHING goes in, and nothing comes out. That's a different thing than how docs think autism is.
And I propose that the reason that nothing comes out is that the EVERYTHING that goes in occupies the brain so much that reacting to the stuff is impossible.
I realize everything. I pic up everything. I even am very good (painfully good) at realizing people's intentions, what they REALLY mean (between the lines) and how they feel and what not (hyper empathy). But it's so much information that it renders me paralyzed so it looks pretty much like I'm catatonic all the time.
On the other hand, maybe I actually do react (something comes out) but NT's are not able to understand it, because it's subtle, or something.

Also, if the docs are right, it wouldn't make any sense that autistics are often very agitated (like headbanging). If their head is always empty, why would they be? It's all the information that goes in and the reactions that can't come out.

Does this make any sense to any of you?

Well I do agree that the term behind the word "autism", which is "self" or something, does not describe me. I hate being called autistic, for that reason. It offends me, makes me feel like I should be a self-centered hermit completely disconnected from the world and never cares to have any contact with other humans. A bit like how a Muslim might feel offended if someone said Muslim=Terrorist.

I am on the spectrum but that doesn't make me socially clueless, selfish, unempathetic or socially disconnected. In fact I'm nothing at all like that. If you met me, you wouldn't even think I was on the spectrum at all. I enjoy socialising, I get emotionally involved in other people, friends and social interaction is vital to me, I can engage in conversations, people interest me, I enjoy gossip and small talk and I'm interested to know about who people are and what they're doing, and, most of all, I have very high empathy for people and also I love to help people or make people feel happy about themselves. And I enjoy buying gifts for my loved ones and I keep in touch with them and care about them, and I am a loving, caring girlfriend to my NT boyfriend. We get along like a house on fire, and I get along with lots of other NTs too. Oh, and I am literally always expressing how I feel. If I'm having a panic attack and there's nobody around to tell, the panic attack gets worse and as soon as I get some sort of contact with a friend or loved one (either face to face or on the phone) I feel much better.

And yet I'm "autistic".

The word is certainly outdated.
It comes from the time autistic people were often thought of as human only in body and were used as subjects for dangerous experiments and left to die in institutions upon diagnosis.

I think you’re getting irritated at the dictionary denotation of the word vs it’s societal connotation. Meaning of words change, that’s how language works unfortunately.

Suggestions for a replacement?

The only ones I can think of are politically correct gobblygook, delusional, or supremicist.

Actually, I would go further, and support a whole new lexicology of AS, even though I know that won't happen. There current lexicology is based on a disease model, and is frequently used in insulting ways by the medical profession and others.

Yes, I agree with you; other disciplines have moved on from where they were a hundred years ago, to their current state of being related to what happened then in only an historical way (not in practice, not in lexicology, some taxonomy has remained the same over time).

Autism, ever the poor kid ignored and not invited to the party, is still left out in the cold (so to speak).

Autism means self-ism, a withdrawn personality, a closed personality.
It doesn't mean nothing comes in and nothing goes out.
Information may be absorbed, perceived, analyzed and expressed in a different way, but information definitely does come in and go out.

Asperger is a man's name. I'll never understand why people put their name to a condition as if they claim it or invented it or owned it.
The condition was there long before someone put a name on it
Giving autism another name won't make any difference.

After World War 2, the name of the medical condition Reiter's Syndrome bothered the Western medical profession precisely because it was named by and after a Nazi in Germany who like Hans Asperger, was a willing party to atrocities.

Such was the fuss about this that it was changed, and in the decades since Reiter's Syndrome doesn't exist.

So there are precedents for name changes in the medical professions (where there's a will to do it).

However aspies have many accumulated and deeply personal associations with the term Asperger's Syndrome which is deeply woven into each person's personal journey and history, so changing the name would be turbulent I think, as it would cause ambivalent feelings in many of us.

Yes, totally agree. That's one of the reasons it never ocurred to me until I was an adult that I am autistic.

I would call it hyper sensory hyper emotion condition.

The change from Reiter's Syndrome deleted the man and his history and replaced a description of the illness itself as the new name (which is Reactive Arthritis).

I think "autism" was a way to describe children who seemed to be "in their own world" and who showed more interest in that inner reality (experience of self) than in interacting with other people. My own experience of being autistic sure doesn't seem like being stuck in an inner experience. But it's how NTs often describe autistics. I have all sorts of interactions with people and my environment although I seem to have to do a lot of mental processing with these whereas NTs seem to perform them more automatically. So I can understand how NTs would see those with ASDs as "autistic". I think a better descriptive term for ADSs would be proximally-skewed neurological connective disorder, due to the increased neural connectivity of brain nuclei that are close to each other and decreased connectivity for nuclei that are further apart. That gets much closer to the root of what we are actually experiencing, including differences in sensory processing, social impairment, repetitive behavior, etc. But the average person is not interested in neurodevelopmental disorders and I'm glad to be able to say "I'm autistic" and people understand at least a little. There's freedom in that - a few decades ago saying that one was autistic could lead to ostracism due to public ignorance and fear of those who are different. That still happens to those who are schizophrenic, for instance.

Eyedash wrote: "a few decades ago saying that one was autistic could lead to ostracism due to public ignorance and fear of those who are different. That still happens to those who are schizophrenic, for instance".[/quote]

It still happens to AS people now. The stigma is alive and well and promoted in all sorts of fields as well as manifesting its ugliness in everyday life.