Facial emotion recognition impairment: necessary component?

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Curious what people think about this subject. It seems that descriptions of ASD often mention facial emotion recognition deficits, but does the literature you've come across indicate that it is a necessary condition?

I'm currently undiagnosed but suspected ASD, but I don't have too much difficulty in recognizing these sorts of facial signals. Additionally, and somewhat related, when I inquired about the possibility of ASD a therapist once told me that I wouldn't qualify as having ASD since I'm too concerned about what others think of me.

What are your thoughts on the scope of the ASD definition? Are there people with the above characteristics who still qualify as having ASD?

From the studies I have carried out over the last five
years or so, it seems to me that those with AS who
are right brained dominant are much better equipped
to manage this issue.

I recognize what it means when someone else is crying, though I rarely know how I am supposed to respond. However, I don't always know what people are thinking about or how they're judging a situation (or me) just by watching their subtle expression changes. It doesn't help that I don't maintain much eye contact. But those are Empathy shortfalls and that is one of the major defining characteristics of Autism. We suck at getting a social read on the people around us because we miss so many of the common body language and facial cues.

As for being concerned what others think of us, I think we care up to a point. Even loners want to be liked and accepted from time to time. However, I can say from personal experience that when you grow up being called weird and odd and left on the fringes of all social interaction, except when someone singles you out to be bullied, you do eventually cease to care whether others think you're strange and ultimately learn to wear it as a badge of honor. I certainly want to be able to forge intimate interpersonal relationships, but by and large I don't care what the sheeplike lemmings think of me, because they're mostly idiots. The last thing I want is to be one of them.

I've seen articles about facial recognition tests for NTs and I swear that although I can see there are slight differences in the photos they show I don't have a clue what they're trying to depict.......this was BEFORE I knew I had AS Now I know why. But as far as MY facial expressions......I think I need to give myself a "D."

"As for being concerned what others think of us" I'm pretty sure that 10 to 13 years of daily rejection (my personal timetable) can cause a ME vs. THEM in almost anyone. Frankly just experiencing this and not coming out of it an anti-social aggressive is amazing.

But what this can create is your (and my) feeling such as your comment: "I don't care what the sheeplike lemmings think of me, because they're mostly idiots. The last thing I want is to be one of them." I felt this way for many, many, many (too many) years, but now I'm beginning to wonder if my old attitude is valid any more? The hurt of rejection lingers for many years, but when I discovered I'd had AS starting when I was little, and after reading of human evolution and how children sort out social issues I understood all the other kids weren't rejecting ME [/u], but just the "weird genes" in their midst. It was never personal, merely automatic "acting out" by kids and people who didn't have a clue.

After all those years my reactions (to reject others and their opinions) have run on auto. And my rejections I've found take up a WHOLE lot of my "thinking" time. So I've begun noticing more my reactions to others and how I feel about others in an attempt to "rationalize" my approach to others. I hope, at the very least, to waste less time mentally demeaning others and get on with thinking that will improve my life.