Defamation of the head of an aspie group to four members

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The head of an aspie support group is seen here engaging in manipulative behavior. She has written an article claiming three people don’t have Asperger’s syndrome when in reality, they had run afoul of her controlling tendencies and she deliberately targeted them to be excluded from not only her group, but others. She has maliciously gossiped to other groups to exclude them mainly for not agreeing with their illogical dogma and controlling tendencies.

https://autismspectrumnews.org/when-an- ... rspective/

• Kate Palmer (MA, CCP, CAS) is the President/CEO of GRASP, a non-profit organization providing services, programs and support to the ASD community. Kate has worked with ASD individuals and families for 20+ years in academic, residential and theraputic settings. Kate specializes in ASD women, trauma and PTSD, educational standards, and employment.

• Lindsey Pfundstein (BA, AC, QMHP) has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Autism Care, and is a Qualified Mental Health Professional.

While Ms. Palmer may not be fully qualified to render an accurate diagnosis, Ms. Pfundstein certainly is.

Can you prove your allegations?  What proof do you have?  I have read the article to which you linked.  Are you one of the four subject mentioned in the article?

What happened to your other 4 posts?

Stephen M. Shore (a former AANE Board President) says, “When you meet one person with Asperger's — you've met one person with Asperger's.” Although people with Asperger profiles may share a common cluster of traits, each person is unique, and his or her life course is highly variable.

So it is very likely that her categorizations are dead wrong. We as a group have too much variability in traits.

It is more likely that those mental-health professionals are correct, and that the OP is simply carrying a grudge from 3 to 4 years ago.

There is also the matter of the solitary comment to the article from someone identifying herself/himself as "Bob" (also the alleged name of one of the subjects of the article), which was posted within 27 minutes before the first post in this thread. Coincidence?

The head of an aspie support group is seen here engaging in manipulative behavior. She has written an article claiming three people don’t have Asperger’s syndrome when in reality, they had run afoul of her controlling tendencies and she deliberately targeted them to be excluded from not only her group, but others. She has maliciously gossiped to other groups to exclude them mainly for not agreeing with their illogical dogma and controlling tendencies.

https://autismspectrumnews.org/when-an- ... rspective/

Are you involved with the group in question? How do you know that she has maliciously gossiped about these individuals?

I read the linked paper and came to different conclusions than you, but if you have additional background information, please provide it.

@Bea: The member has submitted this exact same post before; and while I remember similar posts from a few years ago, they seem to have been moved to the Illuminati forum.  It's in the mods' hands now.

I don't agree with everything Ms Kate Palmer says in the article (e.g quoting a statement calling for "eventual cure of these conditions" but wouldn't describe the article as malicious.

Agree with what Bea says - please provide some evidence of this manipulative behaviour rather than unsupported allegations. Correct diagnosis is essential in determining the best treatment and control.

Let's see how one or two other members of the team feel regarding a response.

Don’t think this can reasonably be described as defamation. Nobody is having their reputation damaged here.

LOL @ the use of epigenetics which to me casts a lot of doubt on the credibility of these two people.

Without any alternative accounts though, this seems like a bit of a storm in a teacup.

The only real "crime" in this is that the OP posted the same thing twice -- not exactly a capital offense...

Just tried to merge the two topics - unfortunately it was difficult to work out what to do on mobile, and I seem to have failed.

Topics merged!

(The UI for doing it is utterly dreadful and even worse on mobile)

Yay!

Now, we wait...

Caveat: I attended a GRASP support group for adults a few of which were moderated by Ms. Palmer. GRASP is an autistic founded and run organization.

I do not see the defamation since the people she described were not named.

I can see why this article would for the lack of better word "trigger" people. Most of us have experienced in one form or another the harmful tropes of "Aspergers is way over diagnosed", "Autism is trendy", Aspies are excuse making attention seekers etc etc etc. A lot of times this is implied not said directly but intent is to accuse us of being lazy as*holes. These tropes are especially infuriating to yours truly because I did not get diagnosed until age 55 because I am such the trendy attention seeker. So I can see coming to the conclusion that these two are intentionally spreading these tropes under the faux guise of these other issues.

But the article is dealing with a very specific situation, not at all saying or in my opinion implying these tropes. I can't see what is wrong with pointing out that Aspergers is diagnosed by behavioral observations, that his can lead to misdiagnosis which is harmful to the person misdiagnosed. They also discuss misdiagnosis of Aspergers based on lack of empathy. The idea that of Autistics lack empathy is one of the consistent top complaints here at WP. Schizophrenics being misdiagnosed with ASD because of lack of empathy is matter of concern for us.

@Bea: How could you come to a different conclusion? Such categorizations are pretty broad. They would have had to sit down in several sessions over several weeks to make a re-diagnosis. They didn't even sit down with them. They just simply kicked them out, then made up an ad-hoc justification. You tell me if the article sounds scientific or sounds vindictive?

This is why you never trust psychologists off-hand. 33% of female psychology students report they were sexually abused. You have to be extremely careful finding a therapist or you'll end up with one more screwed up than you.