Published on 12, July, 2020
So I recently stumbled across this article that really resonated with me - https://aeon.co/essays/the-autistic-view-of-the-world-is-not-the-neurotypical-cliche
It describes to negative connotations and stereotypes associated with autism and covers controversial areas, such as how autistic people lack empathy, are unable to love etc.
The scope of the article highlights how autistic people are observed and judged by neurotypicals and explains how their perceptions and prejudices are based on their own perspectives and experiences.
This may sound harsh and divisive at first, but there is a valid point throughout that due to our minority status, we rarely have a voice to explains ourselves and although I confess I could never fully understand something from a neurotypical perspective, at the same time I wouldn't expect a neurotypical to fully understand something from a neurodiverse perspective either.
What is depressing for me, is that despite that insight into each other worlds, so to speak, clearly lacking on some parts, it is the autistic person who us at fault and not a problem shared by both parties.
I shared this article with my partner and his response was, when are you going to accept life is unfair and you just have to get on with it. Of course he wants to crack on with things because it doesn't affect him! I gave the example of how it would appear should you swap the autistic person with someone who is homosexual or black - he didn't think the same thing applied and so this is why this article is so relevant for out times.
I don't want a NT and ND division, so how do we come to understand each other better?
Many thanks for the link to this article, Starbuck. It’s amazingly close to my own thoughts! After reading all the comments, including BlueRay’s, I thought I’d better actually read it myself. I am so glad I did, but appreciate how complex it could be particularly to those who haven’t yet tried to write from a point of view outside their own experience. I have struggled with this aspect for so long, yet never had the words to convey what exactly it is. I realise I cannot write as if I am someone else at all! If I was to write a romantic novel, the majority would not know what to make of it, for instance! I do wonder now if my viewpoint is neurodiverse rather than just “odd”.
I like the analogy of culture shock to try to explain what it's like to live with an autistic view of the world. I try to tell people to imagine how it would be to wake up one morning and find yourself in a foreign country, with no understanding of the language, culture and customs, and no one to help or guide you. How would you greet people? Conduct yourself in a public place? Order a meal? How would you explain to people that you found their fabrics uncomfortable, their voices too loud, etc? Especially if using the usual sign language of putting your hands over your ears and shutting your eyes was seen in that country as a gross insult?
I would like to experience a simulation of NT experience too, but really think that would be impossible! We are indeed all individual. I think I will just make the most of being ‘me’ for the rest of my life. I do hope you feel stronger soon, Starbuck.
I have no model of autism, I don’t really know what that means, I only speak for myself, but I do have the trait that I think everyone sees the world like me, lol, but I know intellectually that they don’t, but I don’t think there’s a model of autism, I think we’re all exactly the same as everybody else, meaning we are all different, we are all different, whether we have a nt brain or a nd brain and I didn’t know I was quibbling, I thought we were talking, lol, each sharing how we each see the world. I didn’t know that was quibbling, but to be honest, I’m not actually 100% sure I know what that word means, so maybe we are, and I had the wrong understanding of that word. It’s a good word though. I like it. I haven’t heard it for years. I always thought it meant some kind of argument.
Just as not all autistic people are the same. The argument is circular.
I'm saying that I lack the capacity to be able to cope with traveling, given the many variables it would throw up for me and that I would find difficult to handle. Which, if you like, is saying that my autism is different to yours. Which is why I also say that autism cannot be generalised about. The same as all human life cannot be generalised about.
It seems from some of your comments as if you are presenting a particular 'model' of autism that you want to understand, and that anything that falls outside of that model is somehow questionable. I don't really know why this would be. If we are to accept each other as autists, surely it means accepting our differences of perspective as autists. There is no one 'right' way of being autistic. You seem to be quibbling for the sake of it.
I don’t think all nuerotypical people are the same, so I would have to ask each person the question, individually, of why, if indeed they do, do they have problems understanding the inner landscape of neurodiversity even though they’re well travelled. I’ve never seen that connection made before, between travel and understanding the inner landscape of somebody else.
Most people don’t understand their own inner landscape, let alone somebody else’s, but are you saying, travel increases the capacity to be about to understand somebody else’s inner landscape for human beings but for some reason, it doesn’t work like that for people who have a neurotypical brain? Is this knowledge based on some specific research?
I would love to travel, but simply wouldn't be able to cope with the changes of culture, weather patterns, and so on. I need things to be known and predictable. I need a set routine every day and to know exactly what I'll be doing. For me, traveling is something for the NTs. And if an NT is so well-traveled, why is it that they still have problems understanding the inner landscape of neurodiversity?
It's nice to see that this article has resonated with others as well - I would like to contribute to this conversion further, but I have had a rough day and I am recovering from a seizure.
I think making NTs experience things from our perspective could be a start like the VR experience videos, but I think it would help if people could interact with a simulation rather than watching a video as it still allows the viewer to observe more than interact and experience. This could be a good start, but again because NT experience things differently, it still might not convey everyday life that we experience as it is too individual and still requires theory of mind - which as discussed earlier, seems to be lacking on both sides to varying degrees.I would definitely like to experience a NT simulation!
That's all I can muster for now.
I love being by the window and looking at the tops of the clouds etc. It’s the INSIDE of the plane that stresses me out! I have to wind down now and sleep tonight. Goodnight BlueRay.
I love the flying part, especially the really long flights and it’s the only place I watch films, for some reason, and the only place I can’t read, lol. It’s like life reversed for me on a flight but I love it and I really enjoy watching the films.
Hi BlueRay! I realise now that’s I feel about being abroad alone. It’s just the journey getting there that I find incredibly stressful. Like sardines in a tin can flying through the air! Soooo unnatural!
This is why I love travelling and how I can just get up and go, to the other side of the world, by myself, not even knowing where I’m going, lol. People say, WoW, how do you do it, by yourself etc etc. And I say what you said, that this is what life is like for me anyway. It’s like I’m living in a foreign country in the country that I was born in and walking down a local street, is more scary to me than walking down a street in a foreign country as I know that when I’m in a foreign country, I’m less likely to bump into somebody that I know so l’m less likely to get asked questions that I don’t like, such as, how are you, what have you been up to etc etc. So I capitalised on it big time and since my son turned 18, I’ve lived in several places all over the world. It amazes me that I can be in some remote part of India, where they’ve rarely seen a white person let alone heard the English language, yet I can communicate with them and they can help me get on the right bus!!! It amazes me. And I communicate more on an energetic level anyway and some countries, such as Bali, communicate on a more energetic level so I’m much more at ease living in Bali than I am my own country in many ways. It’s a very autistic island.
Hence the feeling of being another species, or being on the wrong planet! Culture shock really is the best explanation in human terms! Being in a body form that doesn’t match the thinking patterns even perhaps? Yet the world would hardly develop without the extraordinary people who advanced science, technology and the arts, to some degree. I agree, the article isn’t about being divided, but rather encouraging mutual understanding. It should not be a world of ‘them and us’ any more or less than any other minority ‘group’ among humans. We all need each other.