So, Simon [from Mercury Rising] has Asperger's?

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From one of Lorna Wing's newest papers:

what idiotic mishmash from an educated person.

Simon didn't have AS, he was autistic, low functioning, severely autistic.


I had troubles understanding the article.

Sherlock was a fictional character, as was Simon. How in the world does this stuff get crdibility in the press?

Well...I guess in the articles defense...I could create a character who displayed every aspect of, let's say, depression. The reader could then safely conclude that the character is depressed.

(That was a terrible example, but you get the point, yes?)

The same thing could possibly be applied to asperger's, if enough information is given. Then again, your conclusion could be dead wrong, but it's not likely.

Sherlock Holmes (who is a fictional character I've admired since I was 13) is a good example of someone with asperger's, even though he might not necessarily have it. He was seen as cold hearted, never displayed emotion, had an obsession with what is "right" or strove to deduce correctly. You would never know it, but he didn't come up with his deductions like it was nothing. It wasn't that he was some sort of crazy genius (though he did pay a great attention to detail). He lived in his head more than in the outside world.

Those are just some things I observed. I'm not in any way giving credit to the article, I'm just trying to shed light on the subject.

What I'm saying is that this type of reinforcement from professionals about fictional stories only goes to perpetuate the old sterotypes and really brings nothing new into the equation. As a result we are all seen as either Sherlock or Simon. It's been that way for about forty years and this will not help to change the public image of 'differences'.

It sounds like she never saw the movie. How else to explain a statement that far off the mark?

As some may be unaware, Lorna Wing is the one who "created" the current definition of Asperger's (i.e., she's the expert).

It looks like she's going the route of Attwood and co (well, they're going on hers), i.e., if you gain communicative speech and/or don't have global mental retardation, you have Asperger's, if not, Autism.

The article is titled, "Reflections on opening Pandora's Box".

You know, I can see it (Simon with AS, as he does have communicative speech, and he doesn't have global mental retardation), it's just that he's of a make where'd I'd label as simply Autism (Classic, Kanner's Autistic Disorder, whatever you want to call it).

I felt like the professionals made a separation from the rest of us beginning about six years ago.

It could be the whole, "mild" and "severe" thingy that some apply to Asperger's, whereas those like Rain Man/Simon would be "severe", and the other end where it gets closer to "normal" will be "mild".

I know she has a daughter with Autism; perhaps her daughter is of the nonverbal and/or mentally ret*d make, and she is comparing them to her and those like her (I'm assuming that Lorna Wing would see many individuals with an ASD).

Simon is about the same as me (I lack the special skill, curses), and I've been said to have Asperger's by Attwood, but also Autism by a couple of other professionals. I guess that answers the question.

about six years ago you could actually see a shift in even professional papers to a more touchy-feely thing about autism and the first hints of calling everything 'condition' instead of 'syndrome'. It was softening of a harder line and mostly mishmash

It's probably a scientific 'fashion'. I remember when I was in college in the late 70s, 'autism' was the 'hot' field for psychiatry and psychology. Over time, it started to work on more variances of spectrum behavior, etc.

I guess it's a 'hot' field again. I wouldn't be surprised if 10 years from now no one studies it much any more, which would be a shame.

It's 'publish or perish' in the professorial world. As long as peer review accepts it, it becomes 'science'. Whether it's accurate or not...

Having to reach into fiction, having no type case, shows that they are making it up.

I can understand why, as I got in much trouble saying, "A twenty-five watt bulb with a hundred watt darkness."

At was at this point that the Inquisition discovered that those they were burning at the stake, after long torture, were not all possessed by the same demon. Then they had to name all the demons, and give each attributes that explained the differance in the people they were killing. They were Professionals.

The Science of Human Behavior is mad at us, as is the church, educational system, the army, most people, for they have a system to deal with all humans, that does not work on us. The equation of stimulus=response that they spent so long learning, gets other responses.

One fact seems clear, thinking is not a normal human activity. People who think are called "Eggheads".

A few at a University may be OK, but not just running around doing as they please and questioning everyone else and causing them to think. People are doing what god, their fitth grade teacher, and the football coach told them to do, and questions upset everything.

Asking why is just a phase children go through, some you tell to just shut up, others have to be hit, and the worst drugged. When the schools were stuck with that egghead psycho, the Principal, who was a football coach, told them to keep disruptive children under control, and as there were those foolish laws against beating them, to use drugs.

It was indeed abnormal, less than 3% of the population thinks, asks questions, and it can and must be stopped.

The main problem was, they were all different, no classic type, some were called, "The Professor", most were called other names, and some hit back.

The worst type questioned the official eggheads. They were just trying to do as they were told, lable the disruptive for further punishment, and the disruptive questioned them.

They ask for Wing-Wang Syndrome to be defined, and doubt the great Junior college teacher Attwood when he says trees are not just autistic, some are aspergers. He also feels some household appliances are aspergers. On weekends he is known as Cassandra.

The basic story is smart people who ask questions and think have a form of mental retardation.

Mostly this is published in magazines no one reads, except other lapdog eggheads who work for the State, and at conferances with high security.