In the course of ongoing critique of a memoir-in-progress, my best "literary" crit-person annoyingly keeps arguing that any particular trait I label Aspie can be found among neurotypicals, even if only atypical neurotypicals like Olympians (that comment in context of fanatical devotion to "special interests").
So I am proposing to add the following at the beginning of odd-numbered chapters in the memoir:
Asperger's Syndrome has been reclassified as one type of autism. Autism is considered a "spectrum." That means it is NOT a scale or a line, but rather something like a spread peacock's tail, with each feather a different trait. The biggest feathers in an Aspie's tail are the inability to perceive social subtexts and obsessions with "special interests."
Imagine your own peacock's tail: you probably have one or more feathers that look a lot like autism-trait feathers.But your autistic-trait feathers are probably not noticed, or acquire a different hue, among your non-autistic feathers. (Each of your traits influences, and is influenced by, your other traits.)
As you pluck out "neurotypical" feathers and replace them with autistic feathers, however, (1) the autistic feathers become more noticeable; and (2) the neurotypical feathers bordering the autistic change hue. At some point, different for each combination of feathers and each diagnosing professional, the peacock looks more "autistic" than "neurotypical."
Obviously every analogy is imperfect. But what, if anything, do you find misleading about this analogy?