"Order out of chaos"?

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This quote is from the book Asperger Syndrome and Anxiety by Nick Dubin (pg. 151):

"I believe the Asperger's experience can be summarized as follows: the attempt to create order out of chaos. Think of the great men and women who were thought to have Asperger's, and you'll find many of them had a burning desire to create order out of chaos: Albert Eistein, Sir Isaac Newton, Alan Turing, and the list goes on. Even if a person with Asperger's is not scientifically oriented, I still believe the driving force in the life of an individual with Asperger's is to create order out of chaos. Those of us with a strong desire to bring about social justice amid social chaos might choose to become lawyers. Others write computer software programs, creating technological efficiency where there was once chaos. People with Asperger's who create beautiful music are creating harmonies out of otherwise chaotic sounds."

I thought that was maybe a slight over-generalization, since it's hard to really speculate about what drives every person with AS, but I thought there was a lot of truth in what Dubin says there. Also, I guess one could argue that all human endeavor is, in a sense, an attempt to create order out of chaos. Still, I think Dubin is onto something with his argument. I know that my own life often feels like an endless battle to impose some kind of order or control on my own internal and external worlds, and it can get pretty exhausting. That's one reason why I think it's especially important for people with ASDs to learn to focus their efforts on things they can have some control over and not burn themselves out pouring all their efforts into things that they can't really have much of an impact on (other people's behavior, for example).

Anyway, I was just wondering if people had any thoughts about this idea of the attempt to create order out of chaos being a central aspect of the experience of AS (and, probably to an even larger degree, of "classic autism").

Oh, I think you are on to something here.

Maybe in most cases. That doesn't seem about par for the course.
I'd have to plead differently in my own case though... as it might be seen abstractly in that sense or even its complete opposite.

I'm aware that my own influence is almost exclusively destructive in nature. I'd rather not get into the stigma regarding that in the here and now, if possible.
I see my own role as something akin to apoptosis. I see malign or malformed "order" and I seek to destroy it... to return it to a primordial, fluid and formless state. Whether this is replacing order with chaos or chaos with order is open to interpretation... I'm not sure either description accurately does it justice.

I would have to agree with you and Dubin, Aperture, from my personal experience. I have also sought to create order out of the chaos around me, at different points throughout my life. I personally believe that part of this can be attributed to the unclear picture I have in my head of the world around me, of the distorted image that is formed through my imperfect senses. There's a lot of stuff, especially where it pertains to people, society, and social norms, that fall on a blind spot for me. I sometimes feel as though I'm groping around in the dark. To combat this, I'm not only trying to make sense of that very strange world, I'm also trying to make an inventory of those things in the world that more readily make sense to me, the things that pertain to my interests, my hobbies, and my preferences; so by listing those things, putting them in place for myself, the world becomes a little bit more ordered in my head, a little bit more familiar, and so a little bit more 'safe' and 'comfortable' for me to navigate through.

I think you nailed it when you said you think all human endeavors are an attempt to create order out of chaos. I don't think this description should be limited to people with ASD. However, it can be argued that people with ASD may be more sensitive to disorder and chaos, and therefore they have a stronger motivation to create order.

I don't know, I was constantly putting things in order, so to speak, when I was a child- even when it involved something seemingly irrelevant. For example, I enjoyed placing my colouring pencils back in the tin following an order that kind of resembled the spectrum of visible light (before I knew what the spectrum of visible light was), except I started with yellow and ended with green- but it would typically go yellow-orange-red-violet-indigo-blue-green, with all the different shades like light green and pink placed somewhere in between, white preceding yellow, and brown, grey, and black following green. I remember having a field day doing this, many times.

Similarly, I'd be lining up Transformers toys, or dinosaur toys, per team or per species, things like that. Seemingly irrelevant things, playing around with setting up some kind of pattern or order. I think I was usually the only child at school or anywhere else who was occupied with things like that.

I think that assessment is spot-on. In fact, it was a Google search that actually led me to this post, and I'm already a member of WP! LOL.

I agree with the other posters that this impulse is not exclusive to those with ASDs, but if I am going to use myself as an example compared to NTs that I know, I would explain the difference like this:

NTs correct things that are wrong in the world within whatever context prompts them to feel that it is best for them to do so.
We correct things that are wrong in the world because they are wrong and they should be right.

IOW, it doesn't so much matter to us what effect(s) the correction will have on anyone or anything as it does the fact that something is wrong and is casually allowed to remain that way when correcting it is a simple matter.

For me personally, the very thought of not correcting something that is wrong when there is no feasible reason not to is maddening. And yet I have had to deal with people all my life who did just that. Some even think it's funny to leave it wrong!!

And we wonder why things don't run more smoothly here on planet Earth.

Just my opinion, but I don't think it's far off the mark.

How do you explain my messy room then?

i dig this.

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