Research Note: (Biological) Social Proprioception

Post Reply New Topic

I'm not talking about what IIUC is meant as a "metaphorical social proprioception," as said to have been coined in 2007 as a way of talking about how some people constantly keep up with their "friends" online through microblogs, "status updates," etc etc etc. At least, not in the first place.

I am hypothesizing that what is commonly characterized as the social deficit of persons on the Autistic Spectrum actually points to human beings' seventh sense, which IOTM to call Social Proprioception before I just discovered such language was used a few years ago for another, internet, phenomenon. IOTM that thinking about it in terms of a sense just like the other six -- sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and proprioception -- and especially this last -- might contribute to understanding life on the Spectrum, as well as to accommodating/empowering SP-impaired persons and/or their SP-related needs.

I don't consider that my hypothesis necessarily answers all the mysteries on the Spectrum ... though who knows where investigation will lead?!

Physical Proprioception, when it is considered to work, is how the body understands its position in physical space (not to sound redundant). IIUC it's considered a separate sense from the other, better-known five, because at least some of the input the body uses in PP comes from inside itself, is gyroscopic if you will, involving the inner ear fluids and other things not "touched" outside the body itself. PP provides one's sense of physical balance (among other things?).

Social Proprioception, I hypothesize, is how the body understands its position in social space, as it were -- its give-and-take with other beings, especially with perceived equals, e.g., fellow human beings, "socially," in mutual contact with each other. (Ideally. Perhaps.)

Just as impairment of the other 6 senses can interfere with perceiving and/or processing their input, thus impacting a person's functioning, even so with SP. Our social deficit is often discussed in terms of a blindness to the myriad "social cues" human beings (supposedly) exchange among themselves from birth till death, consciously, but even more so, unconsciously; or else a problem in processing them neurologically. IIUC these cues can be not only visible but audible, sometimes even (physically) proprioceptive or tactile, and maybe more. While 2 or more of the 5 "traditional" senses often work together to make sense of things around us, their amount of integration in PP may have been considered unique. Until now.

Why would this be important, if true? Most human societies still punish "mental illness" and "mental retardation" socially, and sometimes in other ways also. Many persons with psychological disabilities are even still commonly considered "willful" and/or "lazy," and to have "chosen" their "defiance" or "difference," and are thus not worthy of help or accommodation or empowerment or even benign neglect. Autistic Spectrum Descriptions, perhaps more than most, continue to receive this treatment from society at-large, and even from people we would hope to receive better from, such as parents, family members, neighbors, educators, healthcare professionals, the justice system, other treaters, etc. Not to mention pundits, trolls, other bullies, and the mass media in general. Not too long often passes before we hear of yet another attacked or slain Aspie/Autie in the news, or another vicious, uninformed (or vincibly ignorant) tirade in talk media.

I'm not advocating here that we turn our backs on our fellow victims, members of the MH/MR communities; alliances are important, mutually beneficial, and compassionate. What I mean to point out is that First-World societies, at least, seem to show more compassion in recent years toward their members who are unable to see, hear, or even maintain their physical balance (PP). As a physically-disabled person I am under no delusions about how far our society has yet to go in reaching true compassion and helpfulness towards my physically-disabled sisters and brothers and me. But what I'm asking is whether investigating SP might help turn-up more of, or highlight more, the physical, bodily aspects of Autistic Spectrum Descriptions -- and get us A/A's out of the hate-victim news? Even help move research forward to some better place?

Who knows but that the next Helen Keller, thought unreachable and incorrigible on account of "mere" sensory impairments -- NOT "mentally ill," NOT "ret*d," NOT "hopeless," * "just" blind and deaf -- isn't already here on WrongPlanet.net! (Or the next Temple Grandin??)

As someone recently said, "I'm not a scientist, man," though I am a scientifically literate layperson with a postgraduate liberal education. ISTM if we A/As believe this may be a profitable avenue for study, we may need to help nudge researchers in this direction (yes, underfunded and all-over-the-map though they be).

Am I making any sense here?

Sincerely,
Pete


(*--Not that consumers of MH/MR services are in fact hopeless, but commonly perceived to be, one way or another. I speak also as a person with mental illness, apart from ASD questions.)