Some people just want to free us from the prison of our mind

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Daniel,

The current clinical picture doesn't picture autism as a prison holding a real child locked away.

The current clinical picture does not separate Autism from personality, nor does it integrate them, they are different concepts.

You weren't replaced by another child, you learned how to interact better. It may have changed your life and you, but it's still you.

Daniel, I never said it was a matter of not wanting to interact, in fact, I said it was a matter of not being able to interact. You have someone else's post mixed up for being mine.

The same way I know that there are no faeries, nor magic missiles.

Zewrf, how do you know there are no faeries or magic missiles?

The hill makes me think of the 'changeling baby' theories of old...

you know the ones that went 'baby acts odd and cries a lot? huh must be a faerie child'

The sole advantage to the modern interpretation is that at least nobody's urging the parents to leave the baby in the woods, and force Autism to bring their real child back...

My daughter is autistic. Full-blown Kanner's autism - a spoken vocabulary measured in two digits at most, little if any comprehension of abstraction in speech, no sign she will ever be toilet-trained (at the age of 7), the whole deal. Yet somehow, she manages to communicate her needs to us, and show affection. She doesn't run up to one of us, announce her love, and cover us with hugs and kisses - instead, it's more like purposefully sitting next to one of us on the couch, even leaning up against us. She knows how to ask for milk, juice, and most of her favorite foods, and usually remembers to follow that with "please". I don't think she knows what the word means, she just knows that if she uses it, she gets what she wants faster and more reliably.

She isn't "hidden" behind some "wall" - there's no "real child" stolen away from us by the great demon Autism. She's right there in front of us, trying to communicate in the ways available to her. The fact that the ways aren't always the ones favored by humanity at large does not, in my eyes, devalue her as a person.

I rather like one of the shirts at cafepress.com: "I communicate just fine. It's not my fault you don't understand my language."

I may have worded my question badly. How do you know that no autistic child who appears non-communicative and "not a person", is not really someone who would "come out" and communicate with others if they could?

Reply to the original post:

What a macabre piece of artwork. It's good, but strange. Sort of simultaneously offends me and depresses me at the same time. Of course, I've always thought of my body being the prison of my mind, not my mind being the prison of yet another person. What a weird concept. I understand what it's 'supposed' to me, but for some reason that's not how I view the piece. When it first loaded, I thought it depicted a dead and buried child and how his spirit was trapped inside. I wonder why the artist depicted this particular idea as being buried under the earth?

Quite disturbing, but definitely thought-provoking. I guess I just don't 'get' art, and probably never will. This is funny, considering the fact that I work as a commercial artist (of sorts).

Last edited by Rainstorm5 on 13 May 2008, 7:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I actually bought my step-nephew that shirt, he has a lot of the same problems, though he has a language he 'speaks' in... it's more odd sounds and motions then words but it all means something and I'm sure if people other than myself bothered to put in an effort other than writing him off as 'language incapable' they could learn his and figure out how to get small words into him. I think if the people that feel autism is a cage could try harder to understand they would see that we simply communicate differently. It may not be conventional manners but it works for us.

also: good for her! Non-verbal is always a good way to get your emotions across to others.

That's the way it is for me too, and yet when I was a child, my parents and/or teachers probably thought of me as a prisoner who had to be freed from a mental prison. They did a lot of ABA-type stuff (aka classical conditioning) to get me to "pay attention to reality" and interact with my environment. Probably not unlike the therapy that some autistic kids get today. They didn't understand that my day dreams were so rich and pleasant, I had no motivation to pay attention to the world around me in the normal way.

It's not a prison really. It's more selective mutism with individuals who bore you.
Though something has to be said about the more handicapped members of our community--
the standard has already been set and works accordingly.
Don't let this commercialism offend you and make you uncomfortable.
If you ask my opinion, the parents who rush out there and fall for this kind of
advertisement and who have their kids labeled at the young age of one and a half,
need the moniker of "Munchhausen's by Proxy" slapped on them
and a free train ride to the therapists office.

You are too harsh, Averick!

Truth hurts, so I've been told many times before.

Who are you to diganose sothing like Munchausen's, Averick?

Why? Do you have it?

Yes, Averick I have Munchausen's.

BTW, is that your mugshot in your avatar?

Sorry if I offended anyone. That's just my feelings on this tributary topic.

(Prattle, do you mean an actual mugshot?)

It looks like an actual mugshot. Like one of those notorious DUI booking photos.