What do you think of this analogy for educating NTs?

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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?

Are you kidding me?

LOL...I'm just kidding. It's not a bad analogy at all

Thanks! Being new, I always wonder what I'm still missing.

I think the very fact that you want to educate NT's, rather than dismiss them as hive-mind junkies, is a very laudable thing.

This is exactly how autistic people will be accepted. Through education.

I like it. Would be even better if you could make a visual to go along with it for people who aren't as visual (I found it easy to visualize but maybe some wouldn't).

I also loved that you pointed out that a spectrum is not a line. I can't tell you how many arguments I've gotten into people who think it is. A spectrum could be in any shape or formation. Two seconds of googling backs that up but I dislike proving points that way.

I did a little thought experiment a while back and nobody responded to it at all. But I'll repeat it nevertheless.

Imagine you are in a supermarket and all the items in the supermarket are marked with a price you can take that item and have an easy exchange with the supermarket teller.

This is conversation for a neurotypical person they understand the common value of objects, concepts, ideas and they engage with each other relatively smoothly because of this.

Now imagine you are in a supermarket and none of the items are marked with a price the person wanders through the supermarket looking at the items scanning them for their color and texture then the person tries to make the exchange at the teller but has difficulty because he doesn't know the price he describes the items but the teller doesn't want to know what the items look like he just wants the price so he can make the quick and easy exchange. This is the autistic experience.

This thought experiment is very important to me because I've always had problems relating to other people, it helps to know that I'm on the autism spectrum, but it helps just as much to know that people in normal conversation communicate mostly in values not in meanings. Autistic people are trying to develop some sort of logical model to explain the world whereas non-autistic people easily tune into a social meter to explain things for them.

I hope this thought experiment can be as useful to others as it has been to me.

It's a good anology. You could possible critique the person critiquing you. I would say if an NT had a "special interest" it's for entirely different reasons, so it's debatable if they could really be called special interests or compared. I would say NT special interests like traits described could be because of social pressure, without that social pressure I doubt a lot of Olympians would exist. An autistic is going to have a special interest whether or not they are being to pushed to have one.

I love both of these analogies!

Thanks MadeinHisImage I'm planning to build a career on this analogy so any encouragement is greatly appreciated.

Brandon30

Very interesting notion that NT obsessions have a strong social component, but Aspie obsessions do not.

LanguageMeter Scholar

I didn't understand the details of the second part of your analogy. Wouldn't you be carrying the items to the checkout clerk?

Well you take items to the checkout the person has difficulty making the exchange because they don't know how much money to pay so speak.

When I talk to people I don't know the appropriate amount of enthusiasm for the subject being discussed its makes it hard to relate to other people. I get over excited or I lose interest, one or the other. Its a problem I've had my whole life and I'm not convinced that any academic discipline deals with this problem that is human inter-communication, thats why I created this analogy.

LanguageMeter Scholar

There is an entire branch of psychology devoted to communication. You can find many general and specialized articles on the net just by googling "psychology of communication."

Here is a basic article that includes a brief discussion of the way the emotional state of both sender and receiver can mangle comunications: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/no ... munication

Thanks yourkiddingme read the article but I didn't see any thing that grabbed my attention. There is no binding principle behind such work, I see nothing but a muddle all touchy feely.

I want something strong, something equivalent to Darwin's theory of evolution in regards to the way people relate to each other.

You see people don't enjoy talking to me and I want to know why, that article doesn't give me any reasons but my analogy begins something.

Personally I don't get it You don't explain what relevance the "hue" is, and you also start off implying all people with Aspergers are the same and have the same traits so that's a bad foundation to base anything on.

Toucan

Thanks for pointing out I need to be more clear that, just like other autistics, Aspies don't share all the same autistic traits (feathers) or NT traits.

Also, I'll change "hue" to "color." Here is a webpage that shows how one color looks different depending upon the color(s) next to it. http://www.brandigirlblog.com/2012/11/w ... art-3.html