Intuition

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I have wondered. Is use of intuition, or access to intuition rare among Auties and Aspies?

I think that's a great quetion. Before I give my answer I will put out the disclaimer that I am not diagnosed as having aspergers but I feel I have many traits and, for me, the discovery of aspergers has answered many questions about myself and my behaviors.

I think I have good intuition. I think I have good intuition because I have always had an interest in observing people and trying to understand their behaviors. In social situations I am more like an observer then a participant. I am also pretty pessimistic and skeptical about people and their actions.

To me, "intuition" is the subconscious mind processing things and bringing the result to the awareness of the conscious mind.

Aspies can have "intuition." I think the problem an Aspie most likely has is that they might not understand the appropriate way to use the information that intuition provides.

I might intuitively know that someone is being dishonest, or that someone is upset or offended by what I have done, but knowing that doesn't mean I know what to do with it.

In my experience auties/aspies are just as commonly intuitive as are the members of the NT population, but they are usually unable to use this intuition to gain very much social intelligence/information unless mildly affected, and so in many ways appear very strange and it may be hard for an outside observer to label them a sensor or an intuitive. But I think their intuition is used towards their special interests. Some can though, and are extremely socially intuitive, but usually would not relate as much to being possibly asperger's.

On a side note: Here is a personal opinion/theory: I think neanderthals did not have their personalities interconnect in the same way as neurotypicals. While Myers-Briggs could be applied to homo sapiens (this was the way their social society was constructed) I think perhaps neanderthals did not function on an I/E basis, N/S, F/T, or P/J. So the interbreeding of neanderthals and homo sapiens sort of superimposed a kind of neurotypical social function on top of a neanderthal brain, creating some very strange individuals, some very well adapted to the world and some very maladapted. I am not certain on this however, but it does make sense to me.

Unfortunately one apparently does not have to be ASD to experience that. A lot of knowing is about experience. What has worked before? I often end up asking my intuition to provide the how to respond information too, and fortunately for me it sometimes complies.

IT is really difficult to say some disclaimers say we dpn't others say we do, heres my personal experience I have known two other aspies other then myself of course one bein my current brother in arm callum then the other Ben they won't mind me saying this

Well all three of us have a hih IQ bens is about 110, Callum's 120 mine is 140 (WOOT ownage for me lol)
Ben is more socially direct than me and unless you don't live with him you don't know whats wrong with him lol
Callum and I are wary, Callum can talk easier.

Inititive is really hard to label as a singular entity as it is an umbrella I see it as this and these qualites
Assertion 50%
Judgement and problem solving 20%
Quick flex of logic and accuracy 20%
Finally, the ability to deceipher the best way to solve a situation with little cnsequences or smooth results 10%

Now heres why I said my friends name because I myself am VERY ASSERTIVE literally all the time however I lack the latter
Ben is very good at judgement and social calls and handling things
Callum is not assertive whatsoever and we often have jabs at eachother playfully for being silly, I live with him for 10 months it is ike a married couple seriousally lol

But the point of aspies and inititive is that some and most have a certain one of the underlying factors of inititive but not all it is in my opinion litterally a one in 1 million chance of finding an aspie with every aspect because we lack them social skills to of gatered all entities of initiative.

sorry about mispelling initative I am a phonetic speller an sometimes it elludes me alludes alludes damn you dyslexia and your phonetic spelling lol

Intuition is non-verbal and partly subconscious thinking. What makes you think Aspies don't do it? Human brains operate at several levels of consciousness and awareness concurrently.

ruveyn

The form of intuition that I have been encouraged
to develop as part of my work concerns drawing
inferences from papers I read. This usually means
I have a good idea about the quality of the paper
after reading relatively limited parts of it.

Sometimes, I have been known to complete other
people's sentences (mainly with my Mom), too.

I think people on the spectrum have and even use their intuition just as much as anyone else.

I think where we differ is how often this intuition is actually correct when it comes to social situations and other things we tend to have problems with. Possibly this is simply caused by our lack of experience with social situations in the first place, since we like to avoid those so much

As an aside, there is a theory used by people who work on expert systems that says people start out by learning something step by step and have to explicitly memorise and follow the steps when applying the knowledge. Later, when they have enough experience, the knowledge is turned into a "compiled" state, where you can make snap judgments without even having to think about it (and them being correct, of course). When you then have to explain how you came to the solution, it can be harder because you have to "decompile" the knowledge again. This is what it means to be an expert at something, and I think this is what intuition really is all about.

I've been told that I have extremely good intuition, more so than most NT's. However my intuition is almost completely geared towards perceiving and assessing. It's more of a static intuition. I'm not proficient in planning or knowing the proper course of action. I'm more of an introverted theoretical thinker. Constant action drains me. People drain me.

I can't apply my intuition socially. I perceive things from a sort of external vantage point where I'm not really thinking about ramifications of my actions or what I can get out of an interaction. My sense of self-impact isn't very strong. I can see something going on yet not be able to envision myself as a true participant.

Some of this may be from lack of experience though since I've never been a "go-getter" type personality. It's sort of a contradiction though since I can be very determined and adamant about getting what I want. I'm just not into the social aspect of it.

Intuition is patchy for me. I can sometimes get a sense of something now, but it doesn't mean it's clear or could really be used to help me in any way. Other things, I haven't seen.

I am not saying I think Aspies don't do it. I am simply discovering. I don't know how else to find out, other than to ask. I was contemplating this after I read a couple things. The subject came up on another thread when DonkeyBuster said, "Oh no, I just tend not to listen to it on a day-to-day basis, though if I have a strong gut feeling about someone or something, I will tend to go with that [danger, danger... a**hole ahead] But making ordinary decisions based on intuition... if I did that, would I be AS? It'd have to be a learned behavior." And Temple Grandin I think is her name, in "Animals in Translation" made a statement, I forget which chapter, that she was of the opinion that she has no subconscious. I would think that would be devastating. I depend very heavily upon my subconscious intuition. All I have to do is expose it to things and its memory works like fly paper. I'm not an Aspie, evidently, and I simply want to understand.

I read a paper a couple of years ago that was about a study done on savants. Their theory was that savants only have intuition to work with, and that the knowledge in their intuition was inherited. I have wondered about that. I too am socially inept except when my intuition kicks in. I wonder who I inherited that from.

Intuition - for what? I'm obviously lacking intuition in social situations, but my intuition for other stuff is just fine - I usually do my problem-solving subconsciously. And I'm good at it.

Aspies have very little intuition. They become more pleasant and tactful when they become aware of it - the feel of a meeting, the ease of the other person's body posture.

I would guess then that you're another "theoretical" thinker like I am. I think our mode of thinking is more subconsciously in tune with the underlying order and structure and less fixated on concrete facts. We also tend to have a stronger appreciation for the aesthetic nature of things over the practical.

When you were little did you spend a lot of time drawing, building things with blocks, coming up with designs? Were you more emotionally drawn to aesthetics than to people or activities?

I'm just curious how many other aspies are similar to me.