Blog post comparing Aspergers and Psychopathy

Post Reply New Topic

Yeah.

I had been wondering if maybe she had been in a genuinely abusive relationship with someone with A.S. and was projecting that onto every other A.S. person wrongly, yes, but in a way that I could see as mistaken or misguided.

Then I read her account of her bf from AS Partners, and wow - the guy sounded really awkward, and sounds like they didn't see eye to eye on things, but from that to create a rather intensive SECOND website called Heartless Aspergers from that experience...Holy crap.

You know, I think it calls into question her experience with psychopaths too. Because based on her AS trashing, it seems like her whole mode of dealing with bad relationships is to trash people. Obsessively. Maybe she did date a psychopath. Maybe she didn't. Maybe she has to have labels to judge people for, just to PROVE that they were the ones at fault after a relationship. It's not enough to have personal issues with her ex, she has to make something about them intrinsically and provably wrong - and that means demonizing the entire concept of AS. Because it means she can prove her ex was the bad guy.

In any case, seeing her experience with her AS boyfriend makes me realize that her website and articles are not merely ignorant, but genuinely malicious.

Just to let you know, I was going to let this thread die but I've just seen on the original blog post that started this thread that the author claims to have contacted Alex to get this thread removed. Personal attacks, seriously? So, the observation that she doesn't seem to understand how a stigma affects any group of people according to what she wrote in her blog post and that her blog actually creates and/or propagates a stigma towards AS people is not a criticism of her article but a personal attack on her? I'm sorry but a lot of the posts that I made in this thread was actually a direct criticism of what was written, even quoting directly from the article, and the forum rules of WP do not prohibit us from having opinions about something else written on the internet, whether offensive or not. At least as far as I'm aware.

Here are a bunch of things in the article that made it's credibility take a significant drop.

When she quoted the thing about how any of us who are offended by the article need to "go back to tracking weather statistics".

When she called meltdowns "adult tantrums" as if we we were doing it for attention when in reality that's the last thing we want.

When she claims that we try to act like neurotipicals because we are trying to be manipulative and we don't invest any emotion into anything, ignoring the fact that most of us have to do it because we were/are bullied for being different and we are afraid of being judged for being who we are. [sarcasm]Thanks a lot article, you are really helping with that.[/sarcasm]

When she assumes that we are incapable of being anything but mind blind. I am aware that everyone else has their own emotions and thoughts. Granted I developed this awareness later in life then most people do, but it's there now.

When she claims that we don't care about other people's suffering. I care, it's just that I have a hard time figuring out when it's happening and when I do I often don't know how to respond to it properly.

And especially when she assumed that all aspies are the same.

If she does contact Alex it will be another opportunity for her to learn how misguided her smear campaign is. Manipulation, hot air and trying to control others are traits that tend to occur together, and any 'threats' need to be seen through that lens.

Another Pots which I got by this website is troubling indeed. http://heartlessaspergers.com/stunning- ... f-empathy/

People don't become psychopaths / sociopaths because they're Autistic. People become psychopaths / sociopaths because they've been desensitized to the suffering of others following years of neglect or abuse.

People who become psychopaths / sociopaths are typically loners who have been bullied for many years and snap at a certain point in time because they're fed up with the abuse. They've become consumed by rage and hate because they've only seen the nasty side of humanity for most of their lives.

While some individuals with Autism end up become psychopaths / sociopaths, attributing it to their Autism is like attributing a woman killing the man who raped her to her being female. Men like Adam Lanza did not choose to be a loner. Men like Adam Lanza did not choose to be consumed by rage. They've victims of a society that shows little tolerance for those who are "different".

I'm sure killers like Adam Lanza did experience bullying and trauma growing up. But many people do who do not become consumed with rage and violence, and in fact grow from their experiences to become more compassionate and sensitive toward others. I believe that the few who do snap, who do become psychopaths, do so because a neurological tendency was already there, and got triggered by difficult experiences.

Abuse/neglect does not produce psychopathy in most people, and actually, there are psychopaths out there who did not experience trauma - I should think these would be more 'functional' psychopaths, but still neurologically wired as psychopaths.

I also think that when people become consumed with rage, there is a significant element of choice - it's the choice to embrace the rage, or resist it and mature past it, regardless of who you blame for it. While I think it's good to understand the triggers and lead up to mass killings, I'm not too fond of the idea of viewing someone like Adam Lanza as a victim. I mean, I'm sure Hitler was a victim in his own way (ah crap, did I just invoke Godwin's law? Oh well)...Point is that regardless of all the reasons they got to be the way they are, at some point, certain people are just flat out truly evil. And I think Adam Lanza qualifies as evil.

Not every bullied turns into a school shooter
Not every abused grows up to be a narcissist or have BPD or any cluster B disorders
Not every abused grows up to be an abuser
Not every stressed out person turns into a psycho that they end up killing their own children and themselves, especially if they were handicapped


Everyone is different and I wonder if there is some genetic component and the only way for them to be that way is if something in their environment happens. There is a debate about rather someone can be born evil or if they are created but I wonder if it's both. One has to be born with it but for that person to be evil, it has to be triggered like abuse or something. Look at Diane Downs, she had Cluster B disorders and people could argue, including her, that she became that way because of the abuse from her father and the fact none of his kids were allowed to show feelings and not allowed to cry but none of her siblings grew up to have Cluster B disorders and they were raised the same way as her so could she have been born that way and her father just triggered those disorders because she was born with the genetic factor?


And many others seem to grow up to have PTSD than turning into a psychopath or a narcissistic. Some get multiple personality disorders.