Is Delusion of grandeur more understood than Schizophrenia? Am I safe to tell the general public that I sometimes have delusions of grandeur when I am manic?
Whenever someone gathers opinions concerning doubt surrounding their diagnosis, there is always going to be a hypothetical nature to any response. Furthermore based on no particular case, but a general outlook. Imho there are many autistic people who have been diagnosed schizoaffective when an asd diagnosis shall have sufficed it. To that end, possibly a critical area of diagnosis is the one you have identified, as it certainly shall be the definition of inner voice matters that crosses the boundary. However that itself would not mean your diagnosis is incorrect, and surely matters will depend on what such preconscious thought forms truly mean to us. I'm an adult who was diagnosed late in life by a phenomenology trained clinician. I recall clearly the methods & strategy of that diagnosis & what the demarcations shall have been within that diagnosis. There are thin dividing lines and close parallels in clinical terms, and i my case i was sure to be very coherent concerning the nature of the conscious experience with the preconscious. For instance - it could be true to say that generally speaking the NT neuro typical mind tends work in a quite domesticated, and far more limited way with the preconscious than do asd people. By contrast NT seem adept enough with more extensive use when it matters most i.e regarding certain deeply felt aspects of our lives say with loved ones. But its doubtful NT people refer to the preconscious anywhere near as much as asd people do. Therefore here is the gap where asd folks might describe the inner process to a point that invokes a difference of opinion = diagnosis = schizoaffective vs ASD. Again where you refer to 'Autistic Savant Memory' you seem to have pinpointed this sense of the place, whilst to merely do so does not define anything yet. If i felt my diagnosis was incorrect i can only imagine i'd wish to get into a position to restate matters. For me that might be a clearer path forward, considering i'd tend to believe Freud when it comes to an everyday conscious mind ( that has our daily awareness but with very short memory capability ) - an unconscious mind ( that has no awareness of its own as a long term memory ) and a preconscious which is a sort of crossover from unconscious to conscious. I'm not saying this has to be the architecture to believe, and (furthermore there is a subconscious element that seems to deal with symbols that i've left out - as irrelevant here ). i'm only stating that a person felt confident that within that cognitive scaffold, he''d not misrepresent his autism in front of a doctor of philosophy. Thus that clinician understood what i was saying, the details concerning the convolution preconscious curve were perfectly rational to that DR & i got an ASD diagnosis. In my case i gave up NOT going for a diagnosis, after years of being encouraged by long term partner & being father to 2 asd boys.
There will be many ways by which we can chose to describe our far larger relationship with the deeper mind. Our descriptions can be both long and complex if they have to be. In the end they need to show that the conscious mind is in control of all other processes - all of which can be debated as to what labels they could have. If the world of descriptions is too much ( to know all of ) - then any one we chose that works for us is the simple solution. I chose a common language in Freud not for freuds sake, but as its linguistically universal. In that sense one can recommend it even, on the strength that the most people are likely to understand what we are saying - its a linguistic save haven more that a chosen bias if that makes sense. No matter how- if we do not need a schizoaffective diagnosis, we do not need to describe affairs of the mind that are dominant over the conscious. In short we can be very autistic, have massive relationships with preconscious drivers. But either the conscious mind is in overall control or it isn't.
If the diagnosis clinician feels the conscious isn't they'll be a schizoaffective diagnosis of some kind.
What do you mean by this? And I ask because we typically hear these terms said by NTypicals who like to overcome the meaning of a clinical term. For example, “Empathy”. Which is not sympathy or compassion and yet the general public has also somehow added “demand to be understood” into this little term.
If you often spot the complexities of a problem or can see the seemingly invisible systems at play in the exchange of others and either don’t know how to play along or don’t really feel it’s beneficial to play along, this would be considered asserting a boundary. But someone who’s offended might feel you’re being sociopathic if they don’t understand autism.
Sometimes the madness we encounter and are thrown into can create some kind of mental illness. I think there are a great deal of distinctions to made which are overlooked.
I could’ve easily been thrown into an asylum for Melancholy 50 years ago or when young having imaginary friends or in my teens, making imagery from shadows or using my wild imagination to understand cruelties in society as a type of essence/phantom.
GK Chesterton is often taken out of context but he write a good deal about making distinctions. A good read if you’re digging!!
Whenever I was first diagnosed, the opposite was true. The intrusive thoughts, from my Autistic Savant Memory, were; in my misinformed mind, voices in my head.
I feel that my diagnosis of Schizoaffective/Bipolar was, with the benefit of hindsight and further research, mistaken.
