pascalflower wrote:
psychopaths focus on singular abstract objectives without regards to the means or morality of attaining it. (Their behavior is either perfectly random, or perfectly constant, such as a constant monotone voice regardless of emotions)
AS focus only on things in their immediate space or objectives they are interested in. (It's pretty much the same type of behavior in every situation).
NTs look at behavior as a personal mode of operating that requires shift in gears, or changes in objectives as the situation requires (there is a specific behavior for every specific situation, and some types of behaviors are not tolerated under certain situations).
A psychopath would like to be a police officer because of the authoritative power of the position.
An AS would like to be a police officer because he/she likes the uniform that they wear.
An NT would like to be a police officer because it's a means to earn money.
I thing the big deal with the different types of neurological functioning is how people look at things. For NTs small talk, fashion, degrees, etc are all means to an end. If they can get to the end without the means, then they'll take the short cut, but other than that, they religiously obey social customs. Behavior serves primarily to bolster one's social or financial standing. AS on the other, study things for the sole purpose of knowing and they enjoying knowing it, whether it's financial worth knowing or not.
When I tried to get degrees, they were a means to an end and not the end itself. I tried to take actions to bolster my financial (although rarely my social) standing. I pretty much always looked for work because it's a means to earn money, because I do not, in practical terms, like to starve or have the clothes rot off my back, and I enjoy having a place to live. The work I did do was work I enjoyed and relevant to my interests, but I did it both because it was relevant to my interests and because I needed the money.
I can't really pin down exact differences between my thinking and NT thinking (I wasn't even, until recently, aware of differences). I know there are differences and this creates strife even when I ask people to accommodate those differences in fairly simple ways, and these clashes tend to be along practical lines, along lines involving my social understanding, along lines involving my organizational abilities, and so on. What I don't find is that I necessarily only want different things than NTs want. I mean, sure, I don't really want friends or a relationship the same way they do, but I do like having friends. I also like being able to afford my own expenses. I like to have expertise in the work and hobbies I choose to do. I like to have the independence to choose how I live my life and how I present myself. I share many many traits in common with some (but not all) neurotypicals, it is just that how I go about expressing those traits and doing things and trying to meet my goals, and so on, are indelibly colored by AS, as well as ADHD.
I mean, there are pretty obvious (now) things such as social obliviousness and other symptoms of both conditions, and I really do focus on details to build toward a bigger picture, and I have so many traits that are obviously to me
now autistic, but I feel like there's this urge to say well, if you're autistic you're entirely separate from NTs, and I don't think that's true.