Confused by the words Autistic vs Autism.

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It was Lorna Wing who was responsible for the term Asperger syndrome. It was not her intention that it and autism be considered different conditions. She mentions feeling like she opened Pandora's box.

She states:

... It is perhaps ironic that, having been responsible for using the term "Asperger syndrome" in my 1981 paper, I am now arguing strongly against its existence as a separate entity. The reason for its adoption in my first paper on the subject was to avoid the label of "autistic psychopathy" used by Asperger ... I thought that "Asperger syndrome" was a neutral term that would suffice for the discussion but carried no particular implications for the nature of the pattern of behavior. The trouble is that verbal labels have a strange tendency to take on an existence of their own, whatever the intentions of their coiner. If I were starting all over again, knowing what I now know, would I have used this label? Perhaps not.

However, Wing mentions that the term at least served to widen the prevailing concepts of autistic spectrum disorders. She speculates whether this might have happened if she had simply decided to refer to average/high-IQ autism, or high-functioning autism. She also acknowledges that it still has its uses in clinical work.

Ref: Klin, Volkmar, Sparrow (2000), Asperger Syndrome, New York: The Guilford Press

Calling it a "small minority" is overstating but it still is a minority (something that many don't realize). Not that "minority" means a whole lot, it is the extent of the spectrum that matters for this discussion.

Good point about Joe's High Functioning Label. Here is to hoping that new understanding and action can help shift that some.

Although I wonder where the diagnosed ASC demographics are heading all on their own with the large influx of cases, particularly childhood cases, over the last decade? That is going to be interesting to see. This is just blue sky thinking, but if there was a large number of adults undiagnosed right now where would you think to find them? At this point I'm guessing in places regarded as successful enough by society so as not to come to anyone's attention and/or somewhere beneath society's notice (homeless comes to mind). Or are there still a good number of folks that were diagnosed schizophrenia under prior categorization, that would come in PDD now, still living with the archaic diagnosis?

Last edited by DwightF on 27 Dec 2008, 6:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I read somewhere, maybe in one of Schwartz's books, that many believe the centers for high-tech work like San Jose used to be were huge clusters of undiagnosed autistics working at very good jobs and leading relatively smooth lives. I'm not sure where the myth about low functioning autistics not being able to work ever came from as over the years I've worked with many severly affected individuals and helped out in training classes with the center for independent living. I think manybe some 'want' to work while others don't and that's the big difference.

I have a friend who is blatantly AS, though very unlikely that he'll ever get an official diagnosis as there really isn't much purpose in it for him. He's a few years younger than me. He's done well for himself in the geological field. Has a few friends he's built up through work and then friends of friends, and in a huge step over the last year plus has had an odd and tenuous relationship with a friend's sister with whom he is going to try [again] to move in with.

Estimating from what he's mentioned and his investment mix, and it is mixed in very specific % weighting, he has 10's of lb.s of gold coins stored in safety deposit boxes. Not paper certs saying he owns it, but actual honest-to-goodness gold coin stashed like a friggin' pirate. But he's never owned a house, always rented. Didn't want the hassle of a house. Hell, until we started visiting he had virtually no furniture outside of his bed, two chairs, a computer desk, and a couple bookshelves to hold his WWII history and Lovecraft books. Looks like this attempt to move in with the GF is going to be changing that. Hope his head doesn't implode.

EDIT: But he's just one data point. The question is how many like him, or similar to him, are there out there? If they are like him and the word "autism" has a huge stigma attached to it then they are unlikely to show up in any "diagnosed" data anytime soon.

P.S. Of course there is the joke: What's the difference between an Electrical Engineering Student and a Geology Student? The Geology Student drinks to excess by himself.