Optimistic Asperger's Documentary

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Thought you guys might like this:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_PBVxGEEY4[/youtube]

What do you think?

I can't believe I'm the first to respond to this! Very interesting, and I'll definitely be watching the rest of it. Thanks for posting.

There's another thread on this here:

www.wrongplanet.net/postt89294.html

There's a sequence in this documentary where Reuben is in the supermarket and the narrator says that Reuben has trouble focussing on the task.

I think that Reuben is focussing.
Just not in what they'd call the 'socially appropriate way'.
He's scanning the physical environment and analysing things of interest.

This kind of skill of observation and commenting would be useful for fieldwork or field science. You look at the physical environment and record your thoughts about it. This kind of scanning and analysing behaviour is actively encouraged on trips.

It's just unfortunate that the supermarket setting is a mundane one and therefore people don't expect lectures on how consumerism is shaping society or packaging design. They just want you to chat about trivial things with the checkout woman. That's the culture we live in. People don't expect you to lecture them about everything on the shelves.

But out in nature on field-trips, some people do comment, analyse and lecture in a style similar to Reuben, but on different stuff. Because many people don't get out into the countryside much there is the need for lecturing and pontificating. People go to the supermarket every week or so, therefore there isn't such a need. I find that kind of sad that we're losing touch with the natural environment therefore have to have experts to 'preach' to us about the natural world.

Whenever I walk into a supermarket, I'm almost paralysed with all of the messages, bright colours and imagery I'm bombarded with. These messages and images seem immediate and vivid to me in the foreground, while people move around in the background. I become hyper-aware, the messages don't seem subliminal to me at all, they seem very real. My mind starts analysing all of the messages and I've been on design courses where I've been encouraged to analyse logos and typography. It's hard for me to 'switch off'.

It doesn't mean however that these ethical/social issues don't exist or that they shouldn't be talked about at some time. I think that people are being influenced by these things on a subconscious level.

I think that Reuben does have a point about the ice-cubes.
Why do people basically have to buy lumps of frozen water?
People also buy bottled 'mineral' water.
Water falls out of the sky and yet people still charge extortionate amounts of money for you to buy bottles of it!

The trouble is, in depth analysis can make it hard to do even the most simple tasks like going shopping. You can see details that other people would simply gloss over because other people are more tied down to the social situation. These details can be useful to others if you present them at the right time.

That's why I think in depth analysis of any sort requires you to be a bit socially unaware. Being slightly unaware of the social situation frees your mind up to look at and the anlayse physical environment, in a new way.

i just watched them all, its very interesting. ruben is very much like me, i just wish my IQ was as high as that!
Crowds are horrible, i always get lost in them!

that was a very nice documentary. thanks for posting it.

I've seen it before. The supermarket bit reminds me of myself when he's on about them icecubes. I'm always nit picking at insignificant things like that. And I found it kind of funny when he called his mum mummy, but that's what I call my mum but sshhh don't tell

What's optimistic about it?

It's just another documentary about someone with an ASD.

That's really interesting.
The last bit, with the "What are they doing and why are they doing it?" seems awfully familiar!
Nice to know it's not just me that does that...

This kind of questioning would probably fuel someone to become interested in science to find the 'answers'.
This was the case with me.

I remember being on the playground and asking myself why others weren't talking to me.

This 'Why?' question led me to think a lot of deep sociological thoughts that probably wouldn't have even occurred to the other kids. They were happy because they could just automatically socialise and therefore didn't need to ponder these things. This was probably also the reason why many of them were 'bored stiff' by science and in depth thinking. I also felt deep emotions of rejection that most of those kids probably couldn't even fathom. I hence developed empathy for people who were struggling or were ostracised.

Discontent is the mother of innovation.

Because I couldn't just walk up to anyone and chat to them without them rejecting me, I had to think up other strategies. Being alone also gave me time to think and this thinking time is what strengthened my thinking skills.

Because I was alone and essentially confused, this gave me more time to look at the scenery and the surrounding physical/natural environment. I looked at the details, colours and textures more. I asked big questions about nature. I learnt to read the physical environment for clues as to what to do socially. I learnt by observation and testing my hypotheses, not generally by first hand social interaction.

These analysis skills served me well later in my science education.

I wanted science to provide the answers as to why the other kids ran away when I approached them socially and yet, when I let them approach me, they were calmer.

Great documentary! Thanks for posting.

It felt so familiar when he said he sympathizes with things - as a kid I used to use an elevator nobody else wanted to use 'cause I felt sorry for it.

Last edited by Booyakasha on 07 Nov 2009, 11:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

The bit about the ice cubes is kinda like George in Seinfeld. He's always asking about stuff like that. Sometimes i talk about things like that but it's usually just to make conversation.

It was very interesting doco though. He seems like a nice kid and its great that he was so eager and open about fixing some things about himself.

That really is like me. I sometimes feel empathy for inanimate objects.

Good video, I feel for him, I was bullied and have wondered what my life is for. But he seems to be getting past that with the help of his Mom and brother.

I watched all three, and like other videos, I seem to lack aspiedar, lol, aka I can't tell there is anything that weird about him. :x

Yeah, this is a great documentary. I nitpick the same way about things that make no logical sense.

I'm curious about the idea of "empathy for inanimate objects".
I identify with this view.

Is that sort of like permanently living in the world of "Button Moon" where household objects are personified and have characters?

So can someone see inanimate objects as social agents or over-project social motives onto those objects?

Is that misplaced empathy, displaced empathy or just a different kind of empathy?