Published on 12, July, 2020
Sorry to ask but the more I read all of you, the more I wonder. I take part in this forum because I am the mum of an autistic boy who has sever language delay, stimming, meltdowns, shuttdowns etc.. however I am an astrophysicist and in my career I have worked with many people with small quirks and we were all working together in this very open minded rational atmosphere without anyone refering to an autistic label. Sure my office mate was always making the same joke and switching the lights in the same order and unplugging his things I'd be there or not but I never made a fuss about it.. I just reminded him I was still there and he would very kindly switch on the light again for me. Just to say, has society become so normative that no more quirks are allowed because all sensitive rational people (most scientists are by nature) have, as far as I have seen (nearly 50 years old, lived in 5 countries and met loads of scientists, engineers and the like. Is society excluding this way of thinking more and more? Or is there more that I do not get? What is the border between autism and hypersensitive rational (which tend to go hand in hand)?
My short answer is yes. From enough research one can see is the problem exactly. There were a few philosophers who saw it coming as well. America is colonising the west and pushing east. It sounds odd, but it seems this free-for-all of a nation has taken the psychoanalytical term of the "Neurotic Paranoiac" to a new extreme. (Lacan had stated "We're all a little Neurotic" long before the phrase we're all a little autistic came to exist.)
Anti-Oedipus (Capitalism and Schizophrenia) is a great exploration on how this happens in Capitalism without limits. It's a rather large book. As a politics of economy, the limits of capitalism are always shifting, and in a response, society becomes homogenised and more closed in how it thinks and perceives, and what it expects.
I might suggest we call the Autistic-Analytic 'wiring' a specific distinction from the Neurotic-Paranoiac (this technically means something different than what it appears). The Neurotic being a frame of thinking which keeps the tribe together and the Autistic keeps the tribe from killing itself or allowing the sociopath to do so. What's key is a type of drive, whether one is public about it or not. How far will you go to keep community? Will you be the only one to not drink the poison? The biology of the two differences are quite interesting with a little thought. Not on a surface level but in very instinctual ways. A more analytic reasoning will require a lack of attachment to value judgement. But in order to keep a collective cohesive, language needs to be fluid enough to keep up appearances. It seems an interesting twist that evolution afforded this autistic brain an ability to stay plastic with it's ability to calculate sense perception, while the other is more malleable with language and can filter out unwanted sensations. These two should work together. But in a free-for-all individualised society, a sociopath can end up "Trumping" everyone. And so behaviour becomes a matter of morality - a reflection of the subconscious rather than a differing of strengths and limits.
A Field Guide for Earthlings also gives a practical explanation of what's currently happening. But the other I mentioned really explains in detail how we got here.
I've hacked my environment so it's not a nightmare; fewer LEDs, less 'stuff' in general, we cook a lot and have to mind allergies, human friendly sensory (natural fibres & products - watch out for 'sustainable' which is a facade). I've noticed some in our family mature much slower in various ways. My son is quite wise but behind peers in other things. He'll get there like I did, but I'll simply make sure he has help and isn't left compromised like my parents left me.