Anyone noticed this researcher Arturo Silva yet?

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I guess he's competing with Gillberg for a "Worst autism researcher/profiler" award, he portrays Jeffrey Dahmer's behaviour as something not too uncommon for people with AS.

http://www.astm.org/cgi-bin/SoftCart.ex ... ?E+mystore

"...We propose that his homicidal behavior was intrinsically associated with autistic spectrum psychopathology, specifically Asperger's disorder. The relationship of Asperger's disorder to other psychopathology and to his homicidal behavior is explored. We discuss potential implications of the proposed model for the future study of the causes of sexual serial homicidal crime."

See some other stuff he's written mentioned at http://www.autismwebsite.com/crimetimes/05c/w05cp13.htm too. It seems he's been quite active in stigmatizing AS, probably to encourage society to intervene into the lives of innocent people with AS, under the premise that they might be killers.

People are going to continue to draw parallels between ASD and sociopaths because on the surface SOME traits appear the same. They had different causes, however. And cases like the two teens in Colorado who shot up their school confuse the issue. SOME of their behaviors could be profiled on the spectrum, and they may have HAD some ASD traits. Being on the spectrum does not prevent you from having a co-morbid psychotic problem. There are going to be ASD individuals who commit horrendous crimes, just as there are NT's who do. The question has to be, what was the motivation for the crime? In cases like that, the psychoses have to be pointed to, rather than any ASD traits.

Serial killers often have excellent interpersonal skills.Ted Bundy did.John Wayne Gacy did too.

Autistics aren't good at tricking people, I would think that's essential for serial killers. Sociopaths are excellent at that stuff.

Grrr. Idiots will continue to group us with sociopaths as long as psychologists keeps spewing the BS notion that we don't have empathy or a "theory of mind." This is because a lot of that research is biased and even if it wasn't biased people often confuse empathy with sympathy and/or compassion.

Not to be unpopular, but Dahmer's profile does fit Asperger's/Schizoid better than Psychopathy. He does not fulfill a psychopathic profile, ironically enough. Dahmer's father also fit an AS profile. (I had an intense fascination with criminology and serial killers and now with ASCs.)

The Una Bomber was also classic AS.

The thing is, there are ALWAYS going to be murderers of every sort. Being autistic, or having any other sort of diagnosis, doesn't preclude that. However, the point most people tend not to make is that most murderers and serial killers are not autistic. Most of us are NOT going to turn into serial killers.

I don't feel it's good or bad that a few infamous individuals might've potentially shared my diagnosis. That is just reality. It does upset me that the media runs with it and bends it far out of proportion and begins to create inaccurate stereotypes-- stereotypes which are potentially harmful to those of us who are not serial killers.

That is the unfortunate part about it. Not that these infamous individuals did or did not have such-and-such condition.

Postperson wrote:

Some can be quite good at tricking people... otherwise I never would have been able to make lunch money from a weekly poker game, and I ate well when I did....

Deceit, comes down to an ability to lie. Some people on the spectrum can lie quite well. I also (and this is just a wildassed theory on my part) think that some can lie to other people because they don't actually VIEW that person AS a person. In other words, "they're not my equal-not human like I am" so they lie without feeling any guilt. I realize that can be interpreted more as sociopathic, but I think it applies to some on the spectrum as well, because they MAY lack empathy.

yes, I'd class that as sociopathy, lying because other people aren't 'real' and therefore have no rights.

I find autistics who claim to be good liars dubious. People used to just burst out laughing when I attempted to lie! Maybe you need to reconsider your dx? Exploiting others is also highly sociopathic. I don't see how a lying/deceiving 'aspie' is actually handicapped. If I could do those things I wouldn't need a dx.

Screw this guy. Let's kill him and eat him.

Oh, wait...

I have both sociopaths and autistics in the family. Mum was a sociopath (ugh), dad was an aspie. There IS a difference. My siblings are sociopaths of the not highly dangerous kind (ie no conscience but stay away from any clearly illegal activity), although my sister has some mild autistic characteristics (somewhat obsessive, collects things) with it.

I wonder how many aspies end up in relationships with sociopaths, I'm starting to think it must be common. .

I think this is true. Aspies tend to be very trusting, while sociopaths/psychopaths are very manipulative and see us as easy marks.

Actually, my mother has a lot of Aspie traits, and my father was diagnosed as a sociopath. She also recently got rid of someone I strongly believe to be a psychopath.

I'm a magnet for sociopaths, I'm always attracting them. We DO have a rapport with them (but then they specialise in 'rapport'), I expect a lot of aspies end up married to them and the offspring are a mix. My sociopath brother has one aspie child and his other child we're not sure about.

So, perhaps this Silva guy is confusing correlation with causation. Since there may be a tendency for Aspies to disproportionately spawn with psychopaths, it would hardly be surprising for there to be some aspiepsychos around. I would imagine that the "better" psychopathic killers would tend to be the ones with some aspie traits, like OCD attention to detail. Normal psychopaths tend to be notoriously bad at planning ahead, whereas with the right dose of aspieness they could become particularly dangerous. It's like chocolate and peanut butter. Or something. Though this would only be a small minority of Aspies, of course.

Or maybe I'm just talking out of my butt.

I guess they need to acknowledge the common interbreeding. Most sociopaths (like my family) would be classed as 'normal' by any superficial investigation. I don't know where the sociopath is in Dahmer's lineage but I bet there is one.

God, this is why I despise psychologists and psychiatrists...

Arturo mate, did no one teach you at that 4th rate college you went to that aspergers is NOT a psychopathology? That it very rarely leads to psychopathological behaviour? Did no one teach you that asperger neurology doesn't endow a person with anything near the level of executive fucntioning that is required to carry out serial anything let alone murders...?

We have a name for people like you in the UK. It begins with the letter W and ends in R, with K, N, E, A in between (rearrange at will)...

I was wondering why I had a feeling of deja-vu then I remembered something I wrote about
"Educated Trolls" elsewhere:
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp779417.html#779417
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp783793.html#783793