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Controversial Topic - if there was a cure for autism, would you take it?

Raven_Forester

Hi Everyone, 

I'm not sure if this post is okay, and I'll take it down if its upsetting or too much, but I'm just curious. 

I'll preface with the fact that I haven't actually been diagnosed (yet), but I hold the educated opinion that I am indeed on the Spectrum. Partially because my parents are in denial and worse because my stepdad (a know-it-all) has a masters in psych and claims to have worked with the creator of ABA therapy once upon a time so he thinks he's all knowing about the topic of autism. And I know ABA can be and is extremely harmful to many. Anyway, they both think that if there's a cure for autism the world would be a better place. They also think all autism should be caught early and ABA be applied (not trying to make a pun). However this is not the case for many, myself being an example. I don't want to speak for anyone but what I've generally seen from the internet is that the autistic community would rather have acceptance and support rather than a cure. One of the reasons I'm considering and hoping that I am indeed autistic is so I can get the help I honestly never knew I needed but looking back realized I could have seriously benefitted from. If my parents knew I wasn't just quirky or knew how hard I have to work to seem normal maybe my anxiety to keep up those standards wouldn't be as sever. It's a thought anyway. But I don't think I'd want a cure, again considering that I am actually autistic. All things considered, I like who I am in many respects. My "quirks" make me who I am and I think It'd be hard for anyone to imagine me without them. 

So I'm curious to hear from the real autistic community, not my step-dad, if a cure is actually desired. 

I don't want arguments or anything, just a discussion. And I'll take this down if it's too controversial and causes problems. 

Parents

  • It's not a Thing to be "cured". In fact, in the 1960s, Psychoanalyst Felix Guattari and Philosopher Gilles Deleuze found that the Typical Human being was The Neurotic (look up Lacan - Neurotic, Perverse, Psychotic) and could only be cured by perceiving the world in the Liberated way of the Autistic.

    What they discovered is that the problem is not the Autistic imagination or the Autistic bi-lateral processing or the Autistic wiring which while some may have added support needs, is JUST another human 'personality' with a different way of perceiving and understanding and communicating. It is not secret these individuals are at the core of our technological advances and integral to Art and Science. Humans are supposed to use their senses - not just 5 but internal navigation, human barometers, all KINDS of senses to navigate the wild safely.

    Think about how the advertising industry throws Billions into researching how to hypnotise the neurotic / normal public into buying their product. Why doesn't that work on us? Because they've tapped into a Typical brain wiring that can be hooked through the power of suggestion. I'm rather relieved my social skills are what they are. I can learn hard manners and some principles of engagement and add healthy boundaries and other promising values and still be kind and invest in friendships consciously. While my social skills aren't intuitive except when around other autistic individuals, I quite like my other abilities which can detect safety issues like air quality and make sure to use ear plugs while NT individuals slowly go deaf and wonder what happened. I don't like that I need to advocate for a human-friendly life, but at least there exist external tools to back up my calculations and reasoning. 

    If you want a good deal of homework and to eventually have a grounded response to your step father, check out for a few years and read Anti-Oedipus, Capitalism and Schizophrenia. If it seems daunting, learn a bit of symbolic logic first. You won't regret it.

    Also, humans are inspired into becoming, not dominated. I'm not too sure who gets a masters and then stops following the science. Considering psych 101 is to not stonewall or dominate or cause the other in a discussion to withdraw or shut down. He could use a little 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse of Relationships methinks. 

    For additional reading, this chap is amazing autcollab.org/.../

  • in reply to JuniperFromGallifrey

    Its like normal people (TM) have a demon in their head constantly looking at other people and figuring out what other people would do. And then when it comes time for a normal person (TM) to express their natural inclinations this little demon pops up on their shoulder and goes "normal people wouldn't do that." Only most of the time their not even conscious of the demon. It influences their behaviour so subtly they are rarely aware its their.

    It might be quite useful to autistic people to have a demon in a box. A box you could open when you need to figure out if your 'friend' is lying to you or if they girl you're chatting up is repulsed by you or just board with your conversation. But letting that demon out of the box and in your head where you can't turn it off or get away from it. That would be a terrible thing.

    Looking at the world this way gives you a whole new take on morality too. How many people only do that right thing because the demon tells them. Or would do the wrong thing if the demon told them to? Aztec society used to think killing children in blood sacrifices was a normal part of their culture. Most people in abu ghraib prison went along with the torture. If the only thing keeping you moral is a demon in your head telling you what society expects of you are you really moral at all?

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  • in reply to JuniperFromGallifrey

    Its like normal people (TM) have a demon in their head constantly looking at other people and figuring out what other people would do. And then when it comes time for a normal person (TM) to express their natural inclinations this little demon pops up on their shoulder and goes "normal people wouldn't do that." Only most of the time their not even conscious of the demon. It influences their behaviour so subtly they are rarely aware its their.

    It might be quite useful to autistic people to have a demon in a box. A box you could open when you need to figure out if your 'friend' is lying to you or if they girl you're chatting up is repulsed by you or just board with your conversation. But letting that demon out of the box and in your head where you can't turn it off or get away from it. That would be a terrible thing.

    Looking at the world this way gives you a whole new take on morality too. How many people only do that right thing because the demon tells them. Or would do the wrong thing if the demon told them to? Aztec society used to think killing children in blood sacrifices was a normal part of their culture. Most people in abu ghraib prison went along with the torture. If the only thing keeping you moral is a demon in your head telling you what society expects of you are you really moral at all?

Children
  • in reply to Peter

    Exactly. Which is why they're referred to in clinical psychiatry as Neurotic-Paranoiac (normal functioning state) where as we've been referred to as Schizo-Analytic (normal functioning state). I'd just update to Autistic-Analytic. But from my research I don't mind the other, as it's used to describe an Escape from the paranoid Oedipalised way of functioning/malfunctioning with our vivid imaginations. 

    Everyone has problems to some degree or another anyway.