Caustic Theories on Autism
After reading around a lot, I've come across a lot of theories, studies and whatnot on Autism, and the causes. Most of these studies and theories are not only wrong, but detrimental and insulting to Autistics. Therefore I will now present some counter-theories (inspired by the silly notion of 'the truth is probably somewhere in the middle'). Because they are to counter these other theories, they will by necessity be detrimental and insulting to NT's. Do not read on if you are easily insulted.
Here's the first theory. It builds on one of the latest scientific theories, claiming that Autistics in fact do have empathy (some even say that it is the overload of emotions that causes the shutdown). Autistics are actually True Empaths. That is, they can read other people's emotions very well indeed, so much so that they often become overwhelmed by them, and have to block themselves off. NT people, on the other hand, are not. They have to rely on visual cues to see what another person is feeling. This is quite handy for NT people, because it means that they can 'mask' their feelings by projecting different visual cues to others, so that they 'empathize' with the feelings the NT person wants them to see, instead of their real feelings.
Now, suppose a True Empath comes along. From a very young age, he is able to discern people's *true* feelings, regardless of what 'mask' they put on. Now, this is a shock to these NT's, who are used to being able to project whatever feeling they want to project, and suddenly there's this kid who sees right through you. Are they going to admit that he's right? Of course not! They will repeatedly tell him he's wrong, and that he has no empathy. So the kid starts disbelieving his own empathy, and at the same time is bullied and pushed into a corner for his 'dangerous' gift. This is what causes all the 'bad' symptoms.
Another Theory: Autistics are born with a difference, but that difference is, in itself, not debilitating. The actual difference is in how they learn things: not by imitating others, but by observing others (there have been studies about the subject of learning that support this). Now, this difference causes typical parents to think that their autistic kid is not learning at all, because they can only see what they know themselves (most NT's being unable to empathize with anyone but other NT's). So, the parents become frustrated, and start forcing the kid to learn things. In fact, they are now forcing the kid to do things that go against their very nature, which comes close to abuse.
(Side note: There are lots of articles written by adult autistics, where they describe their feelings when they see a parent react to an autistic kid. They all agree that to them, it seems abusive towards the child. Often even the act of putting the child in a certain situation is seen as very abusive by these writers.)
Now, if you abuse a kid, what will happen? They will pull into himself, become unresponsive, throw tantrums, et cetera. Add to this the frustration that the parents project on their kid, which they pick up on intuitively (Cesar Milan, anyone?) and suddenly you have all the typical Autistic traits that parents fear.
In my last post, I mentioned a study about Emotional Reciprocity, which showed a remarkable improvement in autistic children, when their parents and peers were trained to reciprocate the gestures of the children. That is, to treat them as equals.
Now, all this leads to the theory that Autistic traits are largely caused when parents do not treat their autistic child in a reciprocal way. In effect, they are self-fulfilling their fears by treating their kids from the focus of their fears. So, I conjecture that autism, in itself, is an inborn trait, but the severity is very largely caused by the environment, especially the parents. This would also help explain the increase in number of autistics over the last decades.
My mention of Cesar Milan (the dog whisperer) is actually quite a good analogy, except for one point (which I will get to in a minute). You see, if you really boil down what he's saying, it comes down to: "When a dog misbehaves, it's the *owners* that must be trained." And this training involves the owners to see their dog's behaviour in dog-social terms. The same goes for autistic children. When they misbehave, it's their *parents* that must be trained. This training involves the parents to see their child's behaviour in autistic-social terms. But there's where the analogy breaks down: First of all, dogs are (presumably) less intelligent that humans.
But Autistics are at least of the same intelligence as NT's, and perhaps even of higher intelligence. So first of all, it requires more skill to see and interpret all the behaviour and communications, and secondly, nobody (as of yet) really understands exactly what makes Autistics different from NT's, nor do they know exactly the myriads of ways in which they communicate. (It seems the only common ground is verbal communication.)
So there you have it, two caustic theories that attempt to move the 'middle ground' more towards the truth, and one observation that just spontaneously sprung up.
If you are NT, and you are insulted by these theories, perhaps you will now have a slightly better understanding of how we, on the AS side, are constantly being insulted and marginalized by the theories that are being put forward by autism researchers.
Here's the first theory. It builds on one of the latest scientific theories, claiming that Autistics in fact do have empathy (some even say that it is the overload of emotions that causes the shutdown). Autistics are actually True Empaths. That is, they can read other people's emotions very well indeed, so much so that they often become overwhelmed by them, and have to block themselves off. NT people, on the other hand, are not. They have to rely on visual cues to see what another person is feeling. This is quite handy for NT people, because it means that they can 'mask' their feelings by projecting different visual cues to others, so that they 'empathize' with the feelings the NT person wants them to see, instead of their real feelings.
Now, suppose a True Empath comes along. From a very young age, he is able to discern people's *true* feelings, regardless of what 'mask' they put on. Now, this is a shock to these NT's, who are used to being able to project whatever feeling they want to project, and suddenly there's this kid who sees right through you. Are they going to admit that he's right? Of course not! They will repeatedly tell him he's wrong, and that he has no empathy. So the kid starts disbelieving his own empathy, and at the same time is bullied and pushed into a corner for his 'dangerous' gift. This is what causes all the 'bad' symptoms.
Another Theory: Autistics are born with a difference, but that difference is, in itself, not debilitating. The actual difference is in how they learn things: not by imitating others, but by observing others (there have been studies about the subject of learning that support this). Now, this difference causes typical parents to think that their autistic kid is not learning at all, because they can only see what they know themselves (most NT's being unable to empathize with anyone but other NT's). So, the parents become frustrated, and start forcing the kid to learn things. In fact, they are now forcing the kid to do things that go against their very nature, which comes close to abuse.
(Side note: There are lots of articles written by adult autistics, where they describe their feelings when they see a parent react to an autistic kid. They all agree that to them, it seems abusive towards the child. Often even the act of putting the child in a certain situation is seen as very abusive by these writers.)
Now, if you abuse a kid, what will happen? They will pull into himself, become unresponsive, throw tantrums, et cetera. Add to this the frustration that the parents project on their kid, which they pick up on intuitively (Cesar Milan, anyone?) and suddenly you have all the typical Autistic traits that parents fear.
In my last post, I mentioned a study about Emotional Reciprocity, which showed a remarkable improvement in autistic children, when their parents and peers were trained to reciprocate the gestures of the children. That is, to treat them as equals.
Now, all this leads to the theory that Autistic traits are largely caused when parents do not treat their autistic child in a reciprocal way. In effect, they are self-fulfilling their fears by treating their kids from the focus of their fears. So, I conjecture that autism, in itself, is an inborn trait, but the severity is very largely caused by the environment, especially the parents. This would also help explain the increase in number of autistics over the last decades.
My mention of Cesar Milan (the dog whisperer) is actually quite a good analogy, except for one point (which I will get to in a minute). You see, if you really boil down what he's saying, it comes down to: "When a dog misbehaves, it's the *owners* that must be trained." And this training involves the owners to see their dog's behaviour in dog-social terms. The same goes for autistic children. When they misbehave, it's their *parents* that must be trained. This training involves the parents to see their child's behaviour in autistic-social terms. But there's where the analogy breaks down: First of all, dogs are (presumably) less intelligent that humans.
But Autistics are at least of the same intelligence as NT's, and perhaps even of higher intelligence. So first of all, it requires more skill to see and interpret all the behaviour and communications, and secondly, nobody (as of yet) really understands exactly what makes Autistics different from NT's, nor do they know exactly the myriads of ways in which they communicate. (It seems the only common ground is verbal communication.)
So there you have it, two caustic theories that attempt to move the 'middle ground' more towards the truth, and one observation that just spontaneously sprung up.
If you are NT, and you are insulted by these theories, perhaps you will now have a slightly better understanding of how we, on the AS side, are constantly being insulted and marginalized by the theories that are being put forward by autism researchers.