A Thought About Aspergers

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Does this make sense to anybody? For two years I've been writing a description of Aspergers (among many other things) for someone whom I need to talk to but have yet to contact (long story). At the moment I am working on a section describing in list form some of the differences in manner of thought and behavior between Aspies and NTs. About an hour ago the simple comparison below suddenly came to mind. See if it makes sense to you. I welcome any comments. That thought is:

Aspies observe without judging (most of the time). Neurotypicals judge without observing.

^^^
That is very judgmental of NTs and I don't think it's true.

Shorten it to: Aspergers do, NTs talk.

It is kind of true, from a certain point of view. The way it's said though sounds horrible and is likely to be resisted by most everyone especially NTs.

An excellent set of explanations is in the book A Field Guide to Earthlings: An autistic/Asperger view of neurotypical behavior.
I don't usually just randomly buy books just because "people say they're great," but I did this one and it's one of the big, life eyeopeners (for me), it really explains a lot, though the NT "logic" is so distant from how I think that it was a lot of work to understand.

The part that (sorta) fits your expaination is that NTs spend most of their time/life filtering and improving their filtering.
The way they do it is to "pre-identify" (judge) anything they need to deal with and trim it down to just a symbol, or icon, or perhaps just a file name.
They can then process these "file names" much faster than processing the entire files.
This means, that to filter, all they need to process from their "perceptive input" is only enough details to differentiate something from the other things they might expect in a specific situation.
For instance: long ears, buck teeth, cotton-ball tail = Rabbit. (or vice versa)
A donkey doesn't have the same kind of tail.

But ask a biologist how a rabbit is different from other things in the known universe, (animals, solar flares, diesel locomotives, machine guns) and you'll likely get a list that's a bit longer, right? =)

Especially if the biologist is an Aspie with a special interest in lagomorphs.

Last edited by 1401b on 05 May 2014, 5:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

This is likely (socially and emotionally) to go over like a lead balloon.
Considering how much anxiety and outright fear people on the spectrum experience, it's much more likely that NTs "do" a lot more things/activities than Aspies, who are likely to often isolate/hide.

Agree.

Me: Observe, compare to prior observations, check pattern consistency, mention differences in the pattern to the person


NT people seem to function largely with pre-conceived beliefs, not observationally , and not with dynamic, divergent thinking.

Example:
One time I was driving my car backwards for ten yards into a gas station, because my calipers had locked up, and I could not drive forward. Of course, NT response was to get angry, blow their horns, yell at me. I drove cautiously and slowly, and did not cause any delays, yet, they did not like me violating the traffic rules of driving backwards.

NT people seem to not engage dynamic , divergent thinking - they appear to default to preconceived ideas, and instant judgements. Their minds appear to default to not considering alternate explanations.

I think in the NT mind is a voice that tells them : "Everyone knows you aren't suppose to do that".

NT people don't seem to want to question observation, and develop alternate hypothesis, and live in a state of unknown.

In a way not fully conscious, I'd say mostly yes.

Yes it makes perfect sense to me. I've come to the same conclusion myself.

I think the NT brain is wired to make assumptions so it filter information quickly, and take action on it quickly. And NT neural pathways tend to automatically connect emotions to information, especially information about people.

The AS brain keeps taking in more information, in more depth and detail, and may not categorize it or act on it as quickly.

Yep. Or it's just, "Everyone knows _____" no matter what the voice is telling them. This is a false assumption and it's irrational.

I remember in The Gentle Art of Verbal Self-Defense books, the author pointed out that people use "Everyone knows..." statements as a verbal attack pattern. And whatever follows "Everyone knows...." or "Everyone understands..." is just bait for an argument.

And just as absurd as...well, this:

Geico Ad - "Everybody Knows That"

I consider this book a must-read for anyone on the spectrum. I have read the book 3 times now and learn something new each time.

I don't think that observing without judging is true of people with AS.
On WP, there seems as much judging as there is on NT forums, possibly more.

Oh please! Have you spent more than 10 minutes here?
Why do you think we have mods here and how do you think we keep them so busy?
I've never liked that term NT and this is one of the reasons why - lumping them all together with some freaky JUDGEMENT! HELLLO!! !

A vast majority of assumptions made of NTs on this forum are incorrect and/or done on basis of no or inaccurate observation.

The statement is ironic in that you say 'it suddenly came to mind' despite having Asperger's.

Personally I don't think there are many major, general differences in thought that correlate to being either Aspie or NT, but rather the fact that everyone is an individual.

Sensory issues and other problems Aspies struggle with may cause them to think 'I don't want to go out, because the sun will roast my eyes', though that does not mean difference in thought, as the motive behind the thinking is to avoid discomfort, and that is common of everyone. This is different to alexithymic related thoughts for example - they are not just personal differences, as not only are thoughts changed, but the motives behind them are too, hence a truly different 'reason' for thinking in different ways.

To seemingly contradict myself, I know there are autistics who do not appear to have the motive to avoid discomfort, however it is then questionable as to what defines autism, and if that is caused by autism or a co-morbid and possibly unknown issue. It also brings in to question what 'Neurotypical' is defined as. Neurology is incredibly complicated. There will be autistics who think almost identically to the average NT, and autistics that do not even resemble other autistics. There will also be NTs who think almost identically to autistics and those that bear no comparison. It's all due to labels, which are simple devices placed on overly complicated subjects.

TL;DR - If you delve into the realm of thought differences, it's impossible to navigate the barrier of individuality. The fact that autism is a spectrum highlights just how difficult such studies are. The term 'Neurotypical' is also incredibly generalizing. NTs are not some hive mind that all think in the same way, despite the beliefs of many on this forum.

Yes, everyone makes judgements.

The distinction being made is between non-ASD people using pre-identified/pre-conceived information to make a judgement, and an ASD person using observation and dynamic reasoning to make a judgement.

It is not necessarily negative statement about non-ASD people. They would presumably be faster at reasoning i.e., "quick access high level" and make snap judgement.

This may be incorrect. However, it is how I see it, and others have noted above.

That rather massive assumption suggests that "Aspie types" built the world? hmmmm