[Question] Why do we talk about autism (spectrum) without talking about borderline p.d.?

[MoritzG]

On this site I have repeatedly seen talk about autism spectrum disorder and it is obvious to me why many of those who think about rationality and of those who “are on the spectrum” would be the same people.

Just because the consequences and domains of failure are similar they even get misdiagnosed for another. To me it is the same spectrum. They are not similar, they are opposites.

Is there anything that speaks against this assumption, hypothesis?

Resources: https://​​www.youtube.com/​​watch?v=D_7l2cw93a8 https://​​www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/​​pmc/​​articles/​​PMC5590952/​​ https://​​www.frontiersin.org/​​articles/​​10.3389/​​fpsyg.2021.626353/​​full https://​​www.rightpro.org.uk/​​s/​​article/​​Autism-and-Emotionally-Unstable-Borderline-Personality-Problems

[ChristianKl]

If those two were opposites then there would be no comorbidity between the two. Quick googling for the comorbidity finds:

The co-occurrence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is not rare and has been linked to increased suicidality.

This seems to clearly falsify the hypothesis.

In general the two are both quite complex disorders with a lot of individual elements and more complex then just emotionally responsive/​unresponsive.

[MoritzG]

Yes, and that is in the links I provided under “Resources”. It is a perfect falsification, sadly I distrust the finding because while finding it I also found that teens and older do get misdiagnosed because the symptoms and consequences are similar. Again, I did write “misdiagnosed for another”.

[Elizabeth]

I don’t understand what your hypothesis is or what hypothesis you’re arguing against.

[MoritzG]

Oh, sorry.

I think that other people think: BPD and ASD are independent, orthogonal mental afflictions. The autism spectrum reaches from zero to +100%.

But I think they share a remarkable resemblance in that they are the opposites in deviation from the norm. The autism emotionally unstable spectrum reaches from “emotionally unstable” to “emotionally unresponsive”. Or −100% to +100%

Better? (This editor is impossible for me.)

[lsusr]

An alternative theory considers autism and schizophrenia to be opposites.

[Elizabeth]

Yes, that’s helpful, thank you. I don’t agree though. I think characterizing autistic people as “emotionally unresponsive” is incorrect, and that they share with borderlines the trait of… ~when sufficiently stressed, only holding one emotion at a time, and holding that one very strongly. Things get very black and white and very overwhelming.

Sources: autists and BPDs I have known, every discussion of BPD, Temple Grandin on her autism.

[YimbyGeorge]

What is your summary ? Are BPD and ASC opposites?

My experience is that BPD are followers. ASC are loners.

[MoritzG]

BPD - ASD

socially hyper-sensitive - socially hypo-sensitive

hyper-emotional - hypo-emotional

hyper-neurotic - hypo-neurotic

interest in people - interest in things

focus on feelings - focus on facts

mostly females - mostly males

wants to express subjective feelings—wants to arrange, order world to objective criteria (What does the person want to bring to the outside?)

Overall I see an over emphasis on the observable empirical disabilities, consequences and a lack of understanding the motivation, mediating cause. Because psychology depends on self-reporting, there is a strong perception bias that is not accounted for but answers are reported as fact.