If lack of social skills were the only part of autism this might be onto something. But autism tends to be a cluster of symptoms, which aren’t explainable by a lack of social interactions. For example, autistic people tend to have different sensory perception. I would not expect that symptom to appear from early isolation.
Note that JonahSinick is referring to intellectually gifted individuals who refer to themselves as having autism or Aspergers. Most nerdy people I know who refer to themselves so have never had any sort of formal diagnosis.
My guess is that, if the hypothesis of the post is true, many intellectually gifted people may tend to refer to themselves as autistic when they are not.
In other words, the fact that real autism involves other symptoms does not necessarily disprove the hypothesis of this post.
Seems like we need a better word for “self-diagnosed Asperger” (because it seems to refer to a realcluster in thingspace, just not the one that medicine calls Asperger).
Then we should replace all instances of “autism” in the article with this new word.
we need a better word for “self-diagnosed Asperger”
“socially awkward”
I don’t think medicalizing the issue is a good idea.
Besides, I am not sure this cluster is so well-defined. For example, I would tend to distinguish between people who are asocial because they don’t really care about that aspect of their lives; and people who are socially incompetent, but desperately want to be.
But without medicalizing, how can we generate significant-sounding labels for every aspect of our personalities?
How will we write lists of things “you should know” about dealing with (Insert familiar DSM-adjacent descriptor)?
Without a constant stream of important-sounding labels, how will I know what tiny ingroups I belong to? My whole identity might fall apart at the seams!
But without medicalizing, how can we generate significant-sounding labels for every aspect of our personalities?
There’s always divination. It’s totally random, of course, but throw enough parameters and different methods at the problem and eventually most people will hit something they’re happy with.
A few people who will self diagnose with Aspergers actually have Aspergers. Others won’t. Among those who don’t have real Asperger different people will self-diagnose for different reasons.
Introvert seems to be a good word with clear meaning.
If lack of social skills were the only part of autism this might be onto something. But autism tends to be a cluster of symptoms, which aren’t explainable by a lack of social interactions. For example, autistic people tend to have different sensory perception. I would not expect that symptom to appear from early isolation.
Note that JonahSinick is referring to intellectually gifted individuals who refer to themselves as having autism or Aspergers. Most nerdy people I know who refer to themselves so have never had any sort of formal diagnosis.
My guess is that, if the hypothesis of the post is true, many intellectually gifted people may tend to refer to themselves as autistic when they are not.
In other words, the fact that real autism involves other symptoms does not necessarily disprove the hypothesis of this post.
Seems like we need a better word for “self-diagnosed Asperger” (because it seems to refer to a real cluster in thingspace, just not the one that medicine calls Asperger).
Then we should replace all instances of “autism” in the article with this new word.
“socially awkward”
I don’t think medicalizing the issue is a good idea.
Besides, I am not sure this cluster is so well-defined. For example, I would tend to distinguish between people who are asocial because they don’t really care about that aspect of their lives; and people who are socially incompetent, but desperately want to be.
But without medicalizing, how can we generate significant-sounding labels for every aspect of our personalities?
How will we write lists of things “you should know” about dealing with (Insert familiar DSM-adjacent descriptor)?
Without a constant stream of important-sounding labels, how will I know what tiny ingroups I belong to? My whole identity might fall apart at the seams!
“Making shit up” is a universal, time-honored, and a fairly effective solution :-D
There’s always divination. It’s totally random, of course, but throw enough parameters and different methods at the problem and eventually most people will hit something they’re happy with.
I’m a Cancer with Aries rising. What’s your sign?
But that doesn’t work for signaling that one cares about science. Using sciency words feels much better.
In that case, I’m an ENTJ.
Negative, but it may be because of rollover?
A few people who will self diagnose with Aspergers actually have Aspergers. Others won’t. Among those who don’t have real Asperger different people will self-diagnose for different reasons.
Introvert seems to be a good word with clear meaning.