Autism Unawareness

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Joined: 18 Jul 2006
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27 Feb 2008, 9:05 pm

Jay Gatsby? Really? On what basis?

On the subject of this thread, there really are a lot of misconceptions about autism out there. I can never explain it to people all that well. Even today I was talking to a relatively well-informed college administrator who kept referring to AS as an "illness." Ack, no.

zen_mistress
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28 Feb 2008, 4:08 am

I remember when I first heard about autism, I was a teenager.

I read that they are people who cant perceive people's emotions and I thought it was interesting though I didnt think it was me because i could read emotions in people's voices and recognise facial expressions a reasonable amount. (though I didnt really give either my full attention, I was always tuned into my own head and I would forget to look at these things).

I just couldnt process the non verbal stuff and I didnt have a good theory of mind, but I didnt have enough of a theory of mind to realise I didnt have a good theory of mind!

So I never considered that I might have autistic traits. It wasnt till I read about Aspergers that I started to get suspicious.

So yes there are many misconceptions about the topic out there.

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Stevopedia
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28 Feb 2008, 3:19 pm

srriv345 wrote:

Jay Gatsby? Really? On what basis?

There's a bit somewhere about how he was restless and "there was always a foot tapping" or something to that affect (I'm too lazy to look it up.) He's socially awkward; he's petrified when he comes to Nick's place and sees Daisy for the first time in years. He obsesses over Daisy, and knows how long it's been (to the day) that it's been since he's seen her. In the end of the book one of the characters digs up one of Gatsby's childhood books, which has a long and detailed schedule for all his activities of the day. He makes a massive social blunder/faux pas with regards to Daisy (to say more would make spoilers.) His tastes tend to be eccentric. No one knows who Gatsby really is, as a person.

There's no doubt in my mind that Gatsby is an aspie.

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28 Feb 2008, 4:30 pm

Knaidle wrote:

Last night I gave my students an exam. It was a Physiology exam and one of the topics covered was mirror neurons which had a reference to autism. Several students raised their hand and asked me what autism was. I couldn't believe it! Aside from the fact that it was mentioned in lecture, how could these students not know what autism is?! These are 3rd year undergraduates in one of the top universities in the country and most of them will be applying to medical school. What was even more shocking though, was when I went and told the other TA that I couldn't believe the students didn't know what autism is and he replied 'just tell them that it is a form of mental retardation'.

WHAT??! !??

Is this representative of the general population? Are people really that ignorant about the subject?

I guess it is hard for me to believe that a lot of people know nearly nothing about a subject that I am obsessed with.

That's surprising. I did a presentation on ASCs in my German I class (was able to do it because Kanner and Asperger were both Austrian), and I took a quick poll before I started as to who had heard of "autism". Despite that it was a small class, everyone had heard of it. Nobody of course had heard of AS, but hey, that wasn't too surprising.

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