Low functioning NTs

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Do you think they exist?

Hard to say.. are they low functioning NT's, or are they undiagnosed non-NT's of some kind or another?

There's certainly going to be a range of IQ's and various other metrics among NT's, so I suppose low functioning NT's could be a thing.

That'd be anyone [without an ASD or SSD] with an IQ under 60/70.

The mentally ret*d in other words.

(They tend to be fine socially.)

i guess if they have no problems theyre fine, but if they had a problem then the wouldnt be an NT.

there cant be low function NT because to be neurotypical means you have no neurological problems

Well the definition of NT is at fault here. Primarily it refers to someone who has an NT perspective,values,motives etc. The autistic mindset is worlds apart. For instance, I was reading a thread over at straight dope about train suicides and was shocked that 9/10 posts were moaning about the inconvenience caused to commuters! There was no compassion for the people driven (often by the very attitudes evidenced in said thread) to suicide. One post even stated that he felt justified in having no compassion for someone who committed suicide and caused another car to crash. I admit it is hellish that another man had to die. It is also incosiderate that people inflict their sucide on others. The effects of witnessing a suicide can have lifelong traumatic consequences. but people in that frame of mind cannot conceive of anything beyond the pain. To deny them empathy would seem almost psychopathic.

That sort of thing typifies the NT mindset. There is a focus on the social coefficient. As primarily social animals they live and have their being socially.

Most aspies will empathise with individual over the group and we dont have a sense of the social environment in which we live. Even if like me you long for social contact it will be on your terms. Im not interested n socialising for the sake of socialising

A low functioning NT would be someone with that NT perspective who nevertheless struggles to contai their emotions or cannot intellectually decode the world around them. The primary deficits would be intellectual and emotional.

Remember NT is a construct that we invented. There is no such thing as a typical person - everyone lies along an infinite variety of spectra. 99% of the intelligent people I know exhibit at least 1 autistic trait.

Yes. Visit a homeless shelter, your local jail, maybe visit a psychiatric facility, or assisted living facilities, low-income housing projects, watch COPS on TV--there's all kinds of low-functioning people in the world.

If you overlook those with Down's syndrome, most aren't fine socially. Those who fall in the mild MR range (IQ of 50 to 70), are also aware of their own intellectual disabilities. I have worked in a sheltered housing as a caretaker, so I have firsthand experience with this.

NTs who fall in the BIF range (IQ of 70 to 85) are also low-functioning usually, but won't typically qualify for disability pensions.

That is really awful. How can they not have any empathy for those who committed suicide, are they really that cold?

Hello,

NT here.

Thank you, for explaining this to me.

Greetings

Ennik

The fact that you're a part of this community suggests that you're not a "classical nt". I detect a note of bitterness in your tone. Im not really certain but there's something a little "off" about your response. All im saying is that in my interactions with NT's ive noticed a tendency to devalue the individual and uphold the needs of the many. Its almost as if the default Neurotypica philosophical persuasion is utiltarianism

I'm not sure emotional apathy typifies the mindset of any group, except perhaps sociopaths.

People are equipped to care emotionally about a maximum of 50 other people, and typically care about those like themselves. Thus, it's not exactly surprising that the commuters polled tended to care about other commuters, because, hey, they're all just trying to get somewhere, right? And the person killing themselves? They're just getting in the way of the commute.

That's not to say that people can't care about those different from themselves, it's just that it takes a conscious effort that not many people care enough to make. It's easy to understand those that think like you - understanding others that are different is both unnatural and hard, and requires exceeding a bit of our own basic programming as human beings.

If people took the time to try and understand why it was that the suicidal individual killed him or herself, they may find real or even imagined similarities with themselves, which would increase how easy they would find it to care about this suicidal person. It has nothing to do with being neurotypical or autistic, and everything to do with simply being human.

As for low-functioning NT's - em_tsuj was right on the money. It'd be hard to find anything but low-functioning NT's on an episode of COPS.

"Low functioning" is a term in the Autism Spectrum. Non-autistic people, by definition, are not included in this spectrum. It's not defined in the allistic context.

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/sho ... p?t=678923

Here's the thread. I wouldnt describe the attitufdes in that thread as apathetic at all. Quite the opposite in fact. We can attempt to condone the callousness but ultimately the thread is a perfect example of the herd instinct as well as the capacity of NT's (in particular) to conveniently ignore suffering when certain social conditions are fulfilled. For more of the same see the various experiments hweich have been conducted at universities testing the limits of human cruelty. The wave is a good example

Granted, the poster seems to be pretty impassioned about the person he ran over getting in the way of himself, but what you're describing is human nature. We as humans have a natural inclination to be callous when dealing with others fundamentally unlike ourselves, which by no means is an attitude exclusive to NT's. As I said, it takes effort to care, which is something that is just about equally hard for all human beings (except, once again, for sociopaths).

People with autism usually suffer at the hands of NT's simply because NT's see the autistic mindset as strictly different from their own, and as such, in need of fixing so it's more NT, and thus easier for NT's to care about. NT's aren't more or less inherently cruel than the rest of humanity, just more in the majority, which of course helps them to justify what they are doing.

It's easy to feel like you're right when everyone you know does things your way. And people hate being wrong.

First, we have to define what "low functioning" means and what "NT" means

But the attitudes in those threads are not uniform. There are several posters expressing their understanding toward the jumpers, and some posters say they can understand because they themselves have been suicidal. Speaking as someone who has experienced the after-effects of a relative's suicide (partly because of the method of suicide), I can agree with the sentiments in the thread that ending one's life in a very violent manner in a public place where there are many people to witness, is a deed of ultimate selfishness and lack of consideration for others, if the suicide might also have been committed in a more discrete manner.

I go by the adage that every action has its consequences, and this makes the person who jumps in front of the train responsible for any psychological trauma they might afflict on the people who witness their death. Regardless of what caused the jumper's suicidal feelings in the first place.