How autistic are geeks?
From this BBC News article:
For the first time the government is to calculate the number of adults with autism in England.
Announcing the £500,000 project, Care Services Minister Ivan Lewis said autistic adults are too often abandoned by health and social services.
Also, the leading autism expert Professor Simon Baron-Cohen (yes, his uncle...) was interviewed on the radio this morning.
This got me thinking. When I was small, my mother tells me, my aunt (father's sister) told her I was autistic. Mother has never forgiven her - but what if Connie was right?
It's generally perceived that there's a spectrum of autism, from severe Rain-Man detachment to something much milder. I know one very intelligent person who describes themselves as Asperger's, and I know another very intelligent one who exhibits severely autistic behaviour that "normals" find disconcerting.
Certainly some of the stated symptoms of autism apply to me, such as occasional social ineptitude, obsessional behaviour, reliance on precedent to judge how I should react in a particular context, and interest in concepts more than people. On the other hand, I obsess about quite a wide range of subjects (cricket, vocal music, fantasy books, computers, travel, cookery, art, architecture...), I don't mind change *that* much, and I've got better at reading people with time and experience. On the other hand, a lot of this - "Nexus Personality" - applies to me as well, as a former SO has pointed out.
I'm curious about the intersection between the autism spectrum, the nexus personality and the geek personality type - however that is classed.
So, how many of you would describe yourselves as:
[a] on the autism spectrum, and if so, why;
[b] a geek, and if so, why;
[c] a nexus personality (as stated in the link)?
Thoughts and comments appreciated.
For the first time the government is to calculate the number of adults with autism in England.
Announcing the £500,000 project, Care Services Minister Ivan Lewis said autistic adults are too often abandoned by health and social services.
Also, the leading autism expert Professor Simon Baron-Cohen (yes, his uncle...) was interviewed on the radio this morning.
This got me thinking. When I was small, my mother tells me, my aunt (father's sister) told her I was autistic. Mother has never forgiven her - but what if Connie was right?
It's generally perceived that there's a spectrum of autism, from severe Rain-Man detachment to something much milder. I know one very intelligent person who describes themselves as Asperger's, and I know another very intelligent one who exhibits severely autistic behaviour that "normals" find disconcerting.
Certainly some of the stated symptoms of autism apply to me, such as occasional social ineptitude, obsessional behaviour, reliance on precedent to judge how I should react in a particular context, and interest in concepts more than people. On the other hand, I obsess about quite a wide range of subjects (cricket, vocal music, fantasy books, computers, travel, cookery, art, architecture...), I don't mind change *that* much, and I've got better at reading people with time and experience. On the other hand, a lot of this - "Nexus Personality" - applies to me as well, as a former SO has pointed out.
I'm curious about the intersection between the autism spectrum, the nexus personality and the geek personality type - however that is classed.
So, how many of you would describe yourselves as:
[a] on the autism spectrum, and if so, why;
[b] a geek, and if so, why;
[c] a nexus personality (as stated in the link)?
Thoughts and comments appreciated.