Spiralling brain!

EXCUSE ME!? If my empathy has gone "awry", then why do I have to hold back tears whenever a dog dies in a movie!!?

Hopefully the university takes it seriously and uses it as an opportunity to update the course. In the meantime, try not to let one lecturer's outdated views become your own inner voice. They don't define you or the autistic community.

You're welcome! In case you're not aware, it's perhaps also worth flagging that - as well as some people who were diagnosed with it preferring to keep using that term - it's also still possible for Asperger's to be given as a diagnosis*. So it's perhaps not unreasonable for students to still be taught about it - as long as it's in context, including covering the recent changes in both diagnostic manuals.

* The timeline for implementation of ICD-11 (which no longer includes Asperger's) to replace ICD-10 (which did) can vary by country. The WHO, which publishes the ICD, recognises that countries can face differing challenges in respect of the technical, financial, and/or organisational issues that are involved in making that transition.

Most autistic people I've met have high empathy and yes some are low on empathy or some. Misplace empathy but the same can be said of neurotypicals 

I often wonder how much research from autisim was based on case study of children who were still learning to cope with it 

As I've noticed whilst autsitc adults do still have rigidity in thinking and habbits they learn to adapt these things 

For example I used to think oh it's unacceptable I've been sold a faulty product that should of been caught by staff bit then as I got older my sence of empathy grew a lot and I realized mistakes will happen as staff are over worked and under paid 

Yes thank you. My wording was maybe not the best as I was  and still am raging and although yes I know that it was changed due to clinical reasons I do think the fact he was a nazi guilty of murdering autistic children is quite a huge factor which does need to he said and brought to people's attention if they are not aware.  Each to their own if people choose to relate their disability to Asperger. It is purely my opinion that he and his name should be wiped out.

Yes agreed A lot more education needed clearly.

I think this is a big problem. There are a lot of people that studied autism a long time ago that are not teaching others about it or being responsible for diagnosing it. They are not up to date on their information yet are passing it on to the next generation and causing some people to not get diagnosed. It's no wonder there is so much misinformation out there.

JoJo14 said:

inluded links to the autistic society page explaining why Asperger isnt used anymore as he was a Nazi who literally murdered autistic children with higher support needs. 

Just to clarify, Asperger's was removed from the diagnostic manuals for clinical reasons, not because of the historical facts that came to light about Hans Asperger.

Whilst some people who were originally diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome / Asperger’s prefer to continue using it, some others don’t - in some cases due to the revelations about his complicity.

NAS - Asperger Syndrome

You could ask to speak to the head of department of the faculty that includes your course. If you check your uni's website, it should list all the faculty members.

This is extremely saddening! I just didnt expect to have to be educating people who are preofessors and have phd's when I thought I had paid to educate myself further after being out of formal education for 20 years.

I dont know rhe answer to your question im afraid as didmt properly understand (sorry)  but they teach many different subjects and I am doing one of the few online courses the uni offered. 

Unfortunately, many teachers don't keep up their research in every aspect of a course they teach and it sounds like this course hasn't been rewritten for years. There are other problems as well - is your university a teaching uni only in this subject or does it engage in research? If it does, it depends what areas the lecturers research as it is likely that only those may be kept up to date. 

A close friend of mine was an academic at senior grade but due to cuts, was doing unpaid principal (next grade up) work as well as academic admin for her sub-department, on top of her normal job. She was also pressured to continue with research - if only she was given the time! In the end, she was glad to retire early. Since she left, nine years ago, there have been deeper cuts. If the academics in the psych dept don;'t have time to kleep up with research, they can't update the course. It's shoddy and lets down the students, but such is the state of the academic sector.

In addition to that (if it wasn't enough!) departments are merged to save costs, and lecturers can end up covering a subject for others due to vacancies. It's always worth checking out a lecturer's credentials in the subject they are teaching.

Oh, and add into the mix - like other humans, academics can be lazy, narrow-minded and arrogant.

Thank you! I genuinely just didnt know what or who to speak to about this. I have no friends who are diagnosed and it can be pretty lonely and scary when things like that come up and you are just staring shockedly at anorhers ignorance! 

I think somethings gone awry with empathy in psychology lecturers!

Don't these people ever listen to themselves and think about how what they say comes across to people who hear them?

Has your lecturer ever spent any time talking to autistic people? Does she realise that when you've met one autistic person, you've met one autistic person, not all of us?

I think a lot of austiic people are very high levels of empathy, I would say you're more typical of autistic people than your lecturers are willing to believe, I think many of us suffer with such high levels of empathy that we have to shut down and take some time away from others, just to get away from the storm force auras. 

 She sounds like such a stupid bovine! Thats me being insulting whilst remaining within the site rules.