Sophist wrote:
The one thing which makes me think House isn't ASD though is the same thing which bugs me about Sherlock Holmes: They're both EXCELLENT at reading nonverbal language-- which needless to say is unusual.
Plus with House, in seasons past it always implied he'd had relationship problems, like he'd be hurt and because of that he doesn't reach out anymore.
I guess that's the problem with trying to diagnose a fictional character.
GRANTED, I only saw maybe a dozen episodes, but I never saw how he "read nonverbal language"?
Well, there WAS that woman that had the brain parasites, but SHE was making it VERY clear! Even ***I*** could pick up on THAT! And I have often called myself an IDIOT when it comes to that! The guy having an orgasm was obvious.
As for the little girl? SHE wasn't concerned, so house looked at the clues. BESIDES, it WAS fairly clear. I'm surprised her MOTHER didn't get it.
As for suspecting duplicitous behaviour, etc.... That is BEYOND any understanding of non verbal behaviour.
I, for example, have a range of acceptable behaviour. If someone goes outside that range, I suspect that they are trying to hurt me in some way. EVEN if they seem overly NICE to me! I'm RARELY wrong in such cases. Out of perhaps 100s of extremes, and dozens of ones that were overly nice, I have probably seen 4 cases where the jury is still out. Only 1-2 of those were overly nice. I actually had some overly bad ones that ended up being friends. GO FIGURE! Actually, I LIKE it when people try to decieve me like that. THEY are EASY to spot!
I don't think Sherlock holmes used the non verbal cues either. In fact, judging criminal intent based on that is often wrong.
I often want to scream, LITERALLY, when someone speaks of lie detectors. There is NO such thing! A polygraph is exactly that, a bunch (poly=many) of graphs! For a "lie detector" they may include breating, skin moisture, pulse, etc.... The idea is that you will be worried about being caught in a lie, and that the stress will cause SOME kind of metabolic change. TWO PROBLEMS!
1. Stress may exist from anything, such as colds, environment, or even being questioned!
2. They may have NO stress due to being so confident.
So an innocent person may look guilty, and vice/versa! NO WONDER they are not allowed in court!
Even the idea of having to go to a certain part of the brain for a lie is STUPID! Apparantly, most people MEMORIZED that 9x9=81. I never did. I never had to. If I sat beside a person and they had us both wired up, we would use different parts of the brain. And whos to say I don't want to think about something else during the questioning anyway. Such behaviour is probably MORE likely for an honest person that believes in the system.
HECK, Columbo is a good example of that. In so many he had people seemingly wanting to help, and who obviously COULDN'T have been the one, yet by checking out subtle facts, or FORCING the situation, he solved the case.
The BEST example of that is probably the one where the guy seemed to LOVE his skills, and offered him a high paying job! Columbo stuffed a potato in his tail pipe, and he took his car into the garage. He THEN put a contact into the trunk of the car, and told the first guy about how the murder victim lost a contact, and they could trace it. They staked out the garage and waited for him to come by. How many people brake in in the middle of the night to find someone else contact? He DID start to suspect the guy in some way earlier.
BTW I guess the non verbal stuff isn't that great anyway. 9/10 of the time, they get it wrong with ME! Maybe THAT is my problem. I was too much of a perfectionist earlier and things that didn't work well were just THROWN OUT!
Steve
25 Oct 2006, 7:33 pm
