Douglas Edwards Jan 18

@autistics @adelinej

I just read the Wikipedia article on "Empathy in autistic people", and discovered that there's at least one prominent autism researcher who had already reached the same conclusion I recently did, about the "theory of mind deficit" theory of autism: namely, that it is almost the opposite of the truth. From the article:

> Peter Vermeulen argues that “people with autism, especially the most intelligent ones, do not so much suffer from a deficit in theory of mind, but rather from a deficit in ‘intuition’ of the mind.” He further states that “given the efforts that autistic people make to understand the inner world of others, one could even say that they are the only ones who truly possess a theory of mind.”

Just as I had thought: neurotypicals mostly rely on "click, whirr" hard-wired automatic mechanisms — what I have termed the #EnvironmentalYoke — for their understanding of the social world; WE are the ones who are left to do the actual theorizing about it.

Having read that, my first thought was to get hold of the book from which these quotations are taken. But for me there's one slight problem: the book is in French, a language I don't read!:

Vermeulen, Peter (2009). Autisme et émotions [Autism and emotions]. Questions de personne. Série TED (in French). Brussels: De Boeck Supérieur. ISBN 978-2804103941.

Vermeulen has published books in English, but none of the ones I found appears to be a translation of this specific French book.

If anyone has read this book, or anything else by Peter Vermeulen (in any language!), I would be interested in hearing your reactions!

In any case, I can highly recommend the Wikipedia article. Although Vermeulen is the most explicit, several researchers whose work is referenced in the article also tend toward the conclusion that what we #autistics lack is intuitive — not theoretical — understanding of other minds.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathy_in_autistic_people

Empathy in autistic people - Wikipedia

Show threadDouglas Edwards 
@autistics @adelinej It's the work week so I can't write too much, but — something just occurred to me: if neurotypicals rely on the automatic mechanisms of their #EnvironmentalYoke (and not on any actual THEORY of mind) for understanding of other minds, that could help explain why they react so negatively to #autistics. Because that #EnvironmentalYoke doesn't work on us, or not nearly as well as they think it should. They misread us, or can't get a read on us at all. They compare us to robots or chimpanzees because that’s how they experience us! But the relevant limitation is in THEM, not us.
Jan 23 at 2:17pmWeb
Show threadDouglas Edwards Jan 23
@autistics @adelinej How ironic, too, if the #mindblindness theory of #autism turns out to be a manifestation of the blindness of NEUROTYPICALS to #autistic minds!
Show threadGoiterzan/Amygdalai LamaJan 23
@dedicto @autistics @adelinej
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I see “something CAUSES Autism,” as projection too, it’s my lifelong insight I’ve never been able to shake that punitive abuse causes all the ills of the human world, and since I’ve hatched it seems clear it does that by causing Allism. They’re putting up this cynical “search for a cause,” for us, while denying that “spanking,” causes anything but good behaviour, to distract from the completely obvious conclusion that their child abuse causes their aggression. It’s frustrating. 😠💜
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#ActuallyAutistic #ND
Show thread⠠⠵ avukoJan 29

@dedicto @autistics @adelinej have you seen reference to the double empathy theory already?

And then/if yes, for laughs, see this article: https://www.pure.ed.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/149282333/1362361320919286.pdf

I hate to break it to the neurotypical people, but our brains are to yours, as Formula One racing cars* are to the Toyota Corolla**.

*) yes, this includes being finicky as hell, needing regular pitstops, and sometimes crashing over tiny bumps or the slightest oversteering. But by the gods, the speed, the precision, the performance!

**) Toyotas are great too! And way better for the day to day drive to work, or doing groceries. Don’t underestimate your value.

Show threadDouglas Edwards Jan 30

@avuko @autistics @adelinej My comparison was with the "relaxed stability" (a euphemism for instability!) intentionally designed into the F-16 fighter jet because of its contribution to high performance! #kaleidotropy

I'm aware of double empathy theory and I intend to look further into it, but my guess is that it can't fully explain our communication difficulties. I have difficulties in understanding other people generally, autistic or not.

But in understanding each other, there's at least one important obstacle we DON'T face, that neurotypicals must overcome when they try to understand us: failure of the #EnvironmentalYoke. They assume they'll be able to understand us intuitively, the way they understand each other — and when they try it on us, NOTHING REGISTERS. To their special mind-sensors, we're invisible! It must be a terrifying experience for them. As if we were Ringwraiths. If you've seen the Peter Jackson movies of "The Lord of the Rings", think of the confrontation on Weathertop, before Frodo has put on the Ring of Power. The Lord of the Nazgûl turns to face Frodo, and you expect to see his face — and there's NOTHING THERE. Just a black void within his black hood.

No wonder they compare us to robots and chimpanzees. That isn't the reality of our existence — but I suspect that for many neurotypicals, it IS the reality of THEIR EXPERIENCE OF US. We're visitors from the Uncanny Valley!

https://zeroes.ca/@dedicto/114562251449610899

Douglas Edwards :neurodiv: (@[email protected])

@[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] My comparison is with the F-16 fighter jet, which was the first aircraft deliberately designed to be unstable (the engineering euphemism is "relaxed stability", but it's instability!). The original Wright flyer had been unstable, though not by design, and was barely controllable even for short flights at slow speed. The engineers of the F-16 believed that it would be better at fast maneuvers if the airframe accentuated and reinforced, rather than opposed and neutralized, small deviations from the current flight path. But how can you possibly fly such a thing? Answer: YOU can't — but an automated fly-by-wire system can. That's why this approach to airframe design was not attempted until the early 1970s: earlier aeronautical engineering would have been unable to offer effective accommodation for its disability. So which was the "real" F-16? The grotesquely unstable machine that required thousands of microadjustments per second to its control surfaces just to take off safely? Or the terrifyingly agile air-superiority fighter that asked no quarter from anything that flew? It was of course both. That's how absurd it is to think that disability, in the sense of a condition requiring accommodation, sets ANY limit on high performance when the appropriate accommodation is offered. So am I saying my brain is an F-16? Not exactly. Maybe, at most, an F-16 alpha-test prototype that needs some serious work on its fly-by-wire system. But in the broader outlines, I believe this is what neurodivergence, especially #kaleidotropic autism, is fundamentally about. Trying to design for high performance poses some challenges that you don't face if you're aiming merely for a Cessna 152.

zeroes.ca
Show threadDavid HowellJan 30

@avuko @dedicto @autistics @adelinej

And this analogy goes further; there's far more Corollas than racing cars, and infrastructure is built around this and vice versa, but specialist jobs call for specialist solutions.

(And in my case, I also rely on having large amounts of downforce for extra stability... This message bought to you from under a weighted blanket and other layers plural...)