Here’s the Autistic Adults
July 23, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Researchers pulling back the veil on adult autism read the headline in a Vancouver Sun article on July 20th. Noting that autism, and in particular Asperger Syndrome, is being recognized in more and more adults, the article cites these examples:
A doctor who got “upset when people didn’t say what they mean” and who seems to have a sort of finger and nose “tic.”
A man who “organized his wife’s CDs by the composer’s date of birth and fell asleep on the floor during social events.”
These might just seems “quirks” and “eccentricities” and then a third example:
An office clerk who, “obsessed with not walking on the cracks between the tiles on the sidewalk,” beat up a window because she was in his way as he walked to the bus stop.
The article’s use of “veil” and, in some early versions online, “shroud” suggest that there’s something hidden and unknown and “shroud” suggests that’s what underneath might well not be alive. And perhaps it’s more the opposite—that we’ve had the “veil” on as far as seeing how many autistic adults there are out there, whom it would be well to simply acknowledge.
WCCO (Minneapolis) has a report on adults with autism in the workplace.
beat up a window?
beat up a window?
a woman. Until I reread the story I thought maybe it was widow.
I think I could have some autistic tendencies
I didn’t talk until I was 3
I hate being social and small talk for the most part and I flap my arms when happy or angry
but, I also have great eye contact, maybe too good and, if someone is talking about something I’m interesting in, i could go on about it. Like Dir en grey
but i do fixate on things, like this nice chinese song i heard in Lust/Caution
Being around many Physicists over the years in academic departments and large facilities, we’ve met and known a lot of guys, guys in particular, who are missing variable doses of social skills. Some of them are quite brilliant in physics but miss the yawns, the frozen smiles, the scoots to the door and various cues and hints that say–time to stop talking about that particular point or topic, you are on the verge of losing the job, that maybe the reason the girl didn’t accept the date is because of some lack of personal hygiene. It’s kind of difficult to approach because it’s even recognizable that it’s not necessarily volitional, although I’ve seen both sides get hurt or steamed. If the person is really brilliant, he might still get the job but not be considered for the really powerful position involving some degree of PR, or admiration for brilliance in a research area but not asked out for lunch with the group. The most successful guys like this we’ve known have been theoreticians who generally work alone or in email collaboration and thus more successfully sustain a live-and-let-live environment. This is an observation, not a value judgment, and although I recall some discussion of mental illness, I don’t recall autism or disability. On reflection, the latter may be and have been far more accurate than the former. Until our own experience we did not know enough to take that perspective.
Well, one could beat through a window but not a widow!
I work for a national laboratory which has produced Nobel laureates. The physicists I know are not autistic. They raise families, many being the older ones being grand-parents, their interests are eclectic. They follow, sports teams, read books of every sort, have active social lives, enjoy colloquia on subjects which are not their specialty. They enjoy trivial pursuit, bridge, world travel.
Justas there are persons with autism in many professions, no doubt there some physicists who may have a touch of it. But in no way is it rife in the physics community.
I didn’t mean to imply that the majority are, and we also know some of the renaissance folk that you speak of who have broad interests and excellent people skills. But I assure you that we have known some more than quirky guys who had social difficulties.
Personally, while I’m fascinated by the concepts of physics, I could never get too far with any of the equations or experiments.
Is beating up a woman an eccentricity? Is stalking not wrong? Does autism excuse such things?
Einstein, stuck in a lab? http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article685637.ece
Seems the old boy got out quite a bit.
Newton never married. He thought women could give birth to cats. Interesting some people think some of his eccentricities were due to mercury poisoining.
Maxwell was thought strange in grade school and earned the nickname daftie. He married Dewar’s daughter. One could possibly read some degree of autism into Maxwell’s life, but James Clerk is in the history books because of his contribution to science, his social skills or lack thereof are not.
Pauli exhibited some autistic tendencies
It’s hard to see any sign of autism in Heisenberg’s life. The same goes for Planck, Schrodinger, Bohr, Rutherford, Feynman, or Weinberg.
A question to raise is the article’s emphasis on the extreme (and sadly violent) instances.
The comment about “beating up a woman” may be fabricated or at least anecdotal, since the journalist who wrote the article neither attributes the comment or cites a source. I think it’s either made up or one of those things where someone heard someone else say that they heard something…
Other things in the article are equally questionable. For example, although the article is entitled *Researchers* lift the veil…” some of the informants in the article are not researchers at all. Instead of breaking news or facts, speculation and opinion are offered, such as the comment “”There’s no rhyme or reason. And the problem is with everyone else around them. It’s never their fault.” If the informant really thinks there is no rhyme or reason, she is merely indicating that she knows very little about autism. How do journalists get themselves into this sort of thoughtless selection of “experts”? And the comments about scientists never looking outside the lab at the beauty of the world are just silly.
I’ll cite those ASA and FBI Uniform Crime Reports statistics again: The Autism Society of America has statistics that show that between the years of 2002-2007, 22 people used Asperger’s as a defense in a violent crime case. That’s about 4.4. crimes per year out of (in 2006) 1,417,475 violent crimes. I think researchers ought to look elsewhere if they want to pin the blame for violent crimes on a specific subset of people. In fact, it probably *not* a subset that commits the crimes, but the *majority,* whom, the last time I checked, were “neurologically typical.”
@Paula,
Yes.
Some kind of sloppy inference seems to be made between the notion of autism and “social deficits” and these being connected to (in some public mindsets) pathological behavior.
OT/ Kristina, I checked to see what kind of public tours Brookhaven National Lab offers. This is a little more like the Exploratorium than what I had in mind. The website has other things that might interest you.
Summer Sundays 2008
and Streaming media in various categories
Now that sounds good to me—–
The Autism Society of America has statistics that show that between the years of 2002-2007, 22 people used Asperger’s as a defense in a violent crime case.
I have never or would ever do that. But I suspect that those cases it probably had to with the other guy being NT more than anything else