Autistic Vocabulary

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It seems that this idea was taken in much more sinister context than I intended. I thought it would be more of a fun activity to try and define our own unique qualities that many of us share. These forums create an autistic subculture unlike anything I have seen anywhere else. Every subculture has its own lingo that is understood by the members of that subculture. I would assume that most of our special interests have terminology that seems foreign to others not familiar with that interest. I have enjoyed hearing terms like stim, NT, Aspie, Autie, hyperfocus, microfocus, meltdown and others that have given us a common link to discuss our unique lot in life, and it has created a comfortable way to address it.

Mostly these terms come from our creating terms defined by neurotypicals trying to understand the way we work. Even if we do not create new words to define our aspieness, then we should find common ways to address many of our common ways of seeing and feeling. I have enjoyed reading so many of the posts on these forums and how introspective so many of them are. It was actually the term microfocus that made me think of how limited we seem to be in describing our shared experiences. I can see how microfocus is different than hyperfocus, because I happen to do both. I just happened to throw the word unfunct out there to use as an example and to perhaps start the brainstorming session. If the word doesn't quite fit as I thought, I would love to hear of one that is better.

I think this exercise could be fun and create more of a community dynamic with more words that happen to stick. If we throw out 300 examples and only 3 stick, we have still enriched our own culture. For that is what we have here, our own Autistic culture. Let's try and be Copernicus and proove that the world doesn't revolve around the NT world. There are probably many people who will automatically think this idea is not worthwhile, and it is in the Aspie nature to try and proove that it is just that. However, I am very intrigued by the idea, and I think it will provide a lot of insight that we can use to look at ourselves. Or maybe I am just using the forum to entertain my own special ineterest. Either way.

Missing the point!

By the way, I understand the point behind the OP, and having invented my own languages, I also understand the appeal.

I mean when it's obvious and the person repeatedly keeps 'misunderstanding' the actual question, and then gets mad if you try to clarify. It took me until I was about 30, but I eventually figured out that people do that they don't want to tell the truth, but also don't want to flat-out lie.

Q: "Is it appropriate that she be moved out of ICU at this this stage of her recovery? Her neurosurgeon told me yesterday she'd need to be there for another week."

A: "This [non-ICU] rehabilitation hospital is a fine facility."

Q: "But he said the danger is that she could develop that complication, that you just said is already happening..."

A: "This is a fine facility!"

(found out later the insurance denied coverage for the 'extra' ICU days, so they moved her out early, which was a big risk, and the complications did happen exactly as described to me by the neurosurgeon. The other doctor just didn't want to tell me that.)

Oh, that's being disingenuous, pretending not to understand so that you can fail to answer correctly without being seen to lie. It's still a lie though.

The correct response is "stop being so disingenous, and answer the question."

I'm sorry about the hospital situation. Did your loved one recover?

I didn't mean to imply that "that's life" meant "Getting pleasure from someone elses misfortune". I meant that "that's life" was the same as "c'est la vie".

My experience with that though is that they then tend to explode, and/or become coldly uncooperative -- and I needed to maintain a communication channel with that doctor at the time. It's like it's not even disingeniuousness(sp?). It's like they consciously wanted me to engage in a kind of theater where I knowingly play the role of the 'relative who knows his place,' while they knowingly play the 'omnipotent doctor' role -- and that I'm a sinner if I go off the script by asking questions that mess up the storyline, no matter how sensible the questions, or how far removed from reality that whole bit of theater is.


Thank you -- yes, she's ok now. In spite of it all.

Of course they do. Some for good reason (jargon for complex scientific concepts) sometimes just to be obnoxious and exclusive (kids with slang).
By the way, you might enjoy Jim Sinclair's story about the development of an Autistic culture. http://www.autreat.com/History_of_ANI.html (I was at Autreat last month, and these guys are for real.)

The phrases "plausible deniability" and "passive aggressive" would be part of the explanation. The intention is to control, confuse, distract, evade, humiliate... It's a power game. Your failure to take the hint, fall in line and stop asking inconvenient questions is uppity and unacceptable. That's half-way to being a whistle-blower, and nobody wants that.

Some do it for a specific purpose, others just for sport. My husband thinks it's a fun game, and will actually laugh about when he tells the story to others. The hard part is figuring out whether the perp is conscious or unconscious. Some sheep are so mindless that they really don't understand the question. As in "That's the rule because that's the rule," as though such nonsense is meaningful.

Good word. It's close.

Ah yeah, you are right. But I wanted a word specifically for going into hyperfocus in a situation where it is detrimental. Sorry, I should have explained myself better.

Ok, what do you call it when the shrinks are way off base (out in loonyville) and their delusions of godhood prevent them from talking to the only witness who can actually give useful insight. http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp2357604.html#2357604

I always imagined autistic vocabulary as non-existent. I suppose it is because due to my autism I have issues with speech and language. I'm fine with the words that are common. It's hard enough to get these right in their meaning, pronunciation and use already because of the autism. More words and new words that nobody except a few autistic people can show you how to use it would make it all the more confusing, maybe at worst impossible for some with ASDs to keep up with what the people around them say and how they themselves are supposed to use words and express themselves in a way that others understand.

My bad, sorry.

Since it is an external version of withdrawing, maybe we could call it outdrawing? Any other suggestions?

I like Brown-out.

How about 'doppling' for when our body is on auto-pilot, be we're somewhere else.

Shrinksidedness? He couldn't get past his shrinksidedness to look at the problem.

Wrongnosis? He was only interested in giving me a wrongnosis.

Deitherapy? His solutions were the only possible answer in his deitherapy.

I really like brown-out. I was in an interview when I had a brown-out. The interesting knick knack caused me to brown-out in the conversation.

Linguaspie topic

The fun of analanguage is to explain what you mean, and get a discussion going. No one word can explain it all. I like to make up words, and then someone else will improve upon that, and then there is more knowledge. But there is not final word (pun intended).

So, could there be an Autistic vocabulary? Since we often misinterpret others, including other AS people, I think analanguage is the best approach. What cannot be said, must be shown (Wittgenstein). In other words, words are not always enough.