Published on 12, July, 2020
I truly mean no offense by this...and its not a blanket statement....but ,for some reason, i see the mannerisms and speech of NT's as fundamentally fake....in a general sense...And i think its actually the ego im bothered by....And of course, i have ego also....but i think its displayed in a whole different way with Autism spectrum...
Ive only just got my finger on this...and not fully expounding, (not feeling physically great today) but i hope you all catch what im trying to say.
I’ve always believed those who refer to themselves as “normal” are fake, that they do not behave as their authentic selves when in groups. They pretend to be someone they’re not (conformity) in order to fit into the crowd.
This is a difference I’ve noticed in the autistic people I’ve listened to, people on The Autism Spectrum seem to be more willing to live as our authentic selves even when it means not fitting into the group, less vulnerable to peer pressure.
I’ve actually come to a theory of my own involving autistic people living an authentic life. My theory is that Autism is possibly a condition of authenticity, when we look at the characteristics of Autism we can see they relate to authenticity. Honest opinions for example, honest opinions are authentic opinions.
I looked online and apparently I’m not the only person who’s come to this theory of authenticity, there’s others who have actually done experimental research and the results support this theory, this is just their starting point. So I believe authenticity is possibly another characteristic of Autism.
Funny how popular this has been - the OP was a year ago and I added my comment yesterday. I like your theory Daniel but there are complications, for instance if an autistic person is successfully masking to create a personality - even if it is built out of learned fragments of behaviour and speech - that is unauthentic really - and a bit how I feel. People have certain ideas about me which are wrong but I am the one that put them there by trying to fake some sort of 'image'. But I always tell people it is impossible for me to lie - I can't, I don't know how. So I hate it when people get the wrong end of the stick because it makes me appear dishonest. There is certainly something about authenticity in autism. Growing up I was considered rude and too direct, much to my surprise. I tell it like it is - also known as 'social disinhibition'.
I wondered about masking too. I think maybe intentions are different. I don't know!