Newbie: Is Asperger's a Racket?

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Hi,
I was awakened to the whole Asperger's thing by the Gary McKinnon affair. The fact is that, having listened to one or two fairly lengthy radio interviews with him, to me, Gary McKinnon seems affable, normal, easy-going etc.. MAybe he is just *using *the medical profession to help his case. I don't blame him, considering the trouble he's in, but it opens the question that many other people in trouble can be getting theselves diagnosed of Asperger's Syndrome just to help them, as it's obviously not difficult.
Somebody referred me to the blog that comes up as the first item when you Google 'Racket Asperger's' and I'm wondering what people here think of that blog.
Peace to the spirit,
Zippie

You hit a key issue people like us worry about....abusers of "disabilities" getting the attention and basically discrediting the seriousness of a real disability for many people.

Not long ago a congressman crashed his car real bad and claimed it was the result of taking Ambien.

Horse manure. He abandoned his car, had the presence of mind to go home by another means and called his attorney.

The Ambien line was a way to explain how he could do something so massively wrong when the normal (and more likely causes) would be alcohol consumption. Wait long enough so they can't take a blood sample to test for intoxication and cook up a lame excuse for why he was driving impaired.

Think of McKinnon as more of a bad seed who happens to have Asperger's. And, as expected, he is now coming to visit us here Stateside, AS or no. Which is how it should be. For me, AS has some "sucky points" and some "pretty cool points" too, but it doesn't keep me from traveling to Japan, Australia, or France

A drowning man will grab hold of anything to stay afloat.

Actually I thought McKinnon was quite a good type; even a heroic figure to those of a pluralistic orientation. But the questions raised by the case are, in general terms, expressed in the blog I mentioned, because it looks, on the surface, as though the guy who diagnosed him, or the guy who devised the diagnosis test, didn't know very much about how to distinguish between different character types.

Zippie

You know one of the less than 50 visitors of this one article site to date (and they bothered to refer you to it), or you are yourself its author?

The article is complete nonesense. In reality whether or not there are a number of people who suffer neurological dysfunction that is atypical and described by the diagnostic criteria for Asperger Syndrome is not determined by the semantic meaning of the word "syndrome" and it is ludicrous to suggest clinical practice and social policy should be determined by the words we use to describe reality rather than reality itself.

That the range of people effected by this condition vary greatly in aspects such as personality supports rather than undermines the nosological reasoning of the condition as a diagnosable clinical entity.

The only potentially valid criticism is in essence a criticism that relies on Asperger Syndrome being a separate diagnostic entity to Kanner type Autistic Disorder. But if this criticism is sound then it does not demonstrate the Asperger Syndrome is a racket but rather that APA should go ahead with the proposed merger of Kanner and Asperger type Autism in the next edition of the DSM.

As for people claiming to have AS to avoid or mitigate criminal culpability, this seems a non-concern to me. Without Asperger Syndrome there are any number of conditions that one could claim to have that would be as effective or more effective for the purposes of avoiding or mitigating criminal culpability. Notably many of these would be easier to gain a diagnosis in respect of as they are better known by clinicians (therefore it is more likely a clinician conducting the assessment will recognize the faked "symptoms"), better known with more examples of symptomatic behavior accessible to the average person (for the purposes of learning how to fake "symptoms") are intermittent in nature (thus explaining absences of indicators or periods of time or ocassions when behavior not consistent with symptoms and indicators were provably present) and have a late onset (thus removing the need to provide a developmental background, including imput from others who were present during early childhood development, that supports the diagnosis).

Why anyone would choose to go with AS rather than one of the more convenient, more effective, more easily proven, easier to fake to a clinician and not in need of constant performance (of symptoms) diagnoses that are available to them, I do not know, but suffice it to say I am not convinced that there is a significant number of people are involved, nor concerned that such people are particularly successful in their endeavours (especially since they do not have the sense to go with a more practical fake "diagnosis").

^^ Yeah, what pandd said!

It is my understanding that Baron-Cohen saw Gary McKinnon being interviewed on TV and recognised that McKinnon was most likely autistic. It seems that Baron-Cohen then contacted McKinnon, who was assessed and diagnosed with Asperger's.

very interesting. and technically i agree with most of it. but i don't let that technicality blind me to the fact that there are people out there suffering because of SOMETHING....and that something needs a name, and it is AS right now. so he can make all technical points he likes butit doesn't change the point of the PEOPLE that exist.

It is an opinion piece... and everyone has an opinion. It does not make a strong argument, and tend to veer more towards postulating an agenda than an actual position or point. And given the ranks of individuals who are unable to find resources to assess them and help them gain understanding, I cannot agree with your assertion that "it's obviously not difficult." It is good to ask questions about new medical conditions, but to dismiss them out of hand is as destructive as jumping on board with them as gospel blindly.



Well said.


M.

what are these other easier to fake conditions?

and people fake it because AS is somewhat of an attractive diagnosis to those who don't actually have it. they see it as whimsical believe it or not. thinking they have AS gives them the same feeling that parents have when they are convinced their child is an "indigo baby" or some crap like that. a very beautiful excuse for bad problems. it makes it easier for people to accept their situation and/or failures.

Well, I didn't realize I'd cause such a stir, and I got the link from the one of the comments under an article on the McKinnon case. All I can say is, Baron-Cohen seems to me to be someone who will keenly advance his professional profile by diagnosing anyone who will hit the headlines. McKinnon seems to me to be affable, intuitive, urbane, normal. Also cunning; he was, after all, cunning enough to do that extraordinary hack. But it certainly looks to me as though all you have to do in order to get yourself in a position to be diagnosed of Asperger's is to google it and practice the kind of answers you will make at the assessment.

One other point: to say that there are many who are 'suffering' for AS is rather an unusual way of putting it. Surely their sources of suffering are purely relative to expectations placed upon them. Have we all got to be members of a homogenous social mass or, otherwise, deemed to be suffering from some 'disorder'? To me, that's a sad state of affairs -- it sounds, as the blog says, 'fascistic'. But I still don't know, and from what I have so far read on the 'net, it seems to me that *nobody* actually knows, what Asperger's actually *is*. It changes its face to suit the individual, no?

Sorry if I sound harsh, but I have become increasingly cynical about hyped-up fields of modern research, whatever the discipline in question, and also remain eager to be presented with clear arguments against the blog.

Zippie

Welcome to WP!

Tennis anyone? topic

The ball in in McKinnon's court now.

Asperger's is real. It sure might be the case that it is something that can be impersonated. However, a wrong diagnosis would be solely due to a lack of well-trained specialists in AS. Asperger's is a hidden condition with which someone cannot be diagnosed on the spot - it requires a history of significant impairments. We also cannot discredit someone's diagnosis just by watching them. They may have adapted well, but AS is still there. It is only the specialist who has had an insight into Gary McKinnon's past and did a thorough assessment of his abilities.

A wrong diagnosis can be prevented. However, it is also very easy to find a shrink who will not be aware of what is a personality trait/symptom of another condition versus what is AS. Extreme introversion, for example, can be mistaken for AS. Even if an individual has a few eccentric/unusual behaviors, it does NOT mean that they have AS. I personally know one example of such an incident occuring - luckily, the shrink did not diagnose the person who came to them with AS, because that person clearly does not have it.

Read "Autism and Asperger Syndrome", edited by Uta Frith. It contains Asperger's original account of the condition. The symptoms he describes are very prominent, and I've met many people in real life who exhibit the criteria very well. I've also met some who don't, and it makes me really wonder about how they got their diagnosis. Although it's possible to adapt to some extent, I don't see how it's possible to lose all of your sensory issues and communication deficits. To me, it seems unlikely that those people I know have ever met the full diagnostic criteria.

A mood disorder, or psychotic disorder or dissassociative disorder (off the top of my head).

None of which is a sensible reason for choosing to fake AS the numerous other conditions they could fake for the puposes of mitigating or avoiding criminal culpability.

If people are choosing to fake AS for the purposes of mitigating or avoiding criminal culpability, rather than some easier to fake and likely more effective (for their purposes) diagnosis/condition, for the reasons you posit, then I would suggest these people in the majority of such instances, are less than likely to be competent enough to pull it off. Arguably anyone choosing AS for such purposes on the basis of such reasoning are being less than pragmatic, less than sensible and likely are not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree. Hence my lack of concern that such a ruse is likely to be successful a significant proportion of the time.

quite right. if in fact he isn't AS. sometimes i wish i could press "fast forward" in life to get these little weird tidbits and then go back the present, similar to flipping to the end of a book.