Autistic culture?

Hi all, I'm a Music Therapist working for the NHS and am Chief Editor of a book called "A Spectrum of Approaches: Music Therapy and Autism Across the Lifespan." I'm writing a chapter on the idea of seeing autism in cultural terms, not just diagnostic and would love contributions from people on the spectrum and their families and carers. Is there such as thing as "autistic culture" as separate from "neurotypical"? How is this manifest in terms of self-identity, the arts, and fitting in with others. If anyone would like to make some comments here, or get in touch with me via [email address removed by moderator] If possible, I'd love to include some comments in my chapter.

Many thanks,

Henry

Please note email address removed by moderator as no personal contact details are allowed on the forum.  Many thanks, Heather - Mod

Parents
  • Ofcourse we have a culture, we are just as human as anyone else. Culture in it's simplest terms is what a demograhphic focuses it's time and energy on. Cultures form where groups of people collectively or individually within a demographic hold frequently reoccuring and/or strong experiences, ideas and engage in similar behaviours that overlap, and we also form our culture where we experience do things that cross over with those of other autistic people, allowing ourselves to stop masking and pour fully into our areas of interest unashamedly creates a culture distinct from NT's specifically because NTs don't do it, or don't do it in a similar way. Everytime one of us engages with our special interests and share it and other ideas with eachother we engage in our own culture, this forum is a microcosm of it. People just don't think it exists because spaces safe to be ourselves %100 in public are rare and getting us all together irl is logistically difficult. But if we did all meet up irl and not just the people who are on these forums then it would extrapolate upwards into a larger phenomenon, there would be micro groups in the whole community just like there is on teh forum but what ties us together in similarities is what unites us and those would result in the formation of things more or less shared, enjoyed, reviled, etc. Autistic artists create autistic art, ofc we do, becaue it's cooked up by autistic minds and made by autistic hands. You can't separate me from my autism and thus you can't separate my behaviours, interests, activities, acts of creation and my creations themselves from autism either.

Reply
  • Ofcourse we have a culture, we are just as human as anyone else. Culture in it's simplest terms is what a demograhphic focuses it's time and energy on. Cultures form where groups of people collectively or individually within a demographic hold frequently reoccuring and/or strong experiences, ideas and engage in similar behaviours that overlap, and we also form our culture where we experience do things that cross over with those of other autistic people, allowing ourselves to stop masking and pour fully into our areas of interest unashamedly creates a culture distinct from NT's specifically because NTs don't do it, or don't do it in a similar way. Everytime one of us engages with our special interests and share it and other ideas with eachother we engage in our own culture, this forum is a microcosm of it. People just don't think it exists because spaces safe to be ourselves %100 in public are rare and getting us all together irl is logistically difficult. But if we did all meet up irl and not just the people who are on these forums then it would extrapolate upwards into a larger phenomenon, there would be micro groups in the whole community just like there is on teh forum but what ties us together in similarities is what unites us and those would result in the formation of things more or less shared, enjoyed, reviled, etc. Autistic artists create autistic art, ofc we do, becaue it's cooked up by autistic minds and made by autistic hands. You can't separate me from my autism and thus you can't separate my behaviours, interests, activities, acts of creation and my creations themselves from autism either.

Children
No Data