Opinions on Maxine Aston to help with tribunal submission?

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I want a detailed explanation of Maxine Aston to use before a tribunal. I would like as much informed opinion as possible to help me with that.

Thank You

M.

Last edited by mechanima on 24 Apr 2009, 10:08 am, edited 1 time in total.

Explanation in what sense? It is difficult to answer a question that is so completely lacking direction.

Also, if you were to use information posted on this board before a tribunal, would the people responding here not be held accountable for their words? I doubt that is something anyone here would be willing to be involved with.

I don't know anything about her except what I just found on the Web with a straightforward search - it's clear she's at the centre of some pretty thorny polemics - you've probably read this page already, but just in case you haven't, here's the link:

http://autisticbfh.blogspot.com/2008/09 ... -scam.html

What's your angle? Has she caused you some personal trouble? I presume so, otherwise you wouldn't be looking at the possibility of putting her in the dock.

Seems like heavy stuff anyway.

Yeah...

I suppose it WAS a weird way of asking...

What I mean is, I know all about Maxine Aston...but I want some opinions and definitions other than my own to give it a bit of balance.

M.

Okay, but I suppose what I am asking is, what are you going to do with these opinions? Are they for personal use, or are you actually using them to support a case?

Sure, I could give you my honest opinion, but I'm not about to put myself in a position where I could be forced to give a legal statement, or worse, be accused of libel or some such craziness.

Just read that linked page, and if that's true, then who is going to say anything positive about her??

Well, there were one or two people posting comments in her defense, below the article.....but it all got personal very quickly, there's obviously a lot of anger about from both sides. Hope that doesn't break out here.

Interesting point about being concerned over what might happen to somebody posting something potentially libellous......I suppose folks ought to be careful until more is known about exactly what this is.......the law can be a strange thing. If I knew anything myself, I'd be careful to couch it in terms like "as far as I recall...." and "in my opinion....." Still, if anybody's in danger of a libel action it'd be the author of that blog.....who really doesn't mince words

mechanima, maybe you'd care to expand on what it's all about? Just a thought - none of my business really.

In my opinion, Maxine Aston is trying to use Asperger's to attract clientele.
Where I live the divorce rate is right around 50% half of all marriages end in divorce although I am not sure how they get that number since new marriages occur all the time when people apply for the marriage license and become newlyweds every year and a divorce can happen anywhere from a day to 100 years after the license is issued.
So, I don't know how they come up with that figure without breaking it down more. Like, fifty percent of marriages fail in the first year. If that's the case, it's more likely the actual overall divorce rate is much higher. If something like fifteen percent of marriages end in the first year, the statistic could be for marriages of any duration. I distrust statistics because they can be misleading if they are based on non constants and since the rate of marriage licenses and divorce decrees are not constances, how can a statement like "fifty percent of marriages end in divorce" be accurate?
Anyway, with that in mind, I think she should stick with marraige counseling in general instead of specializing and trying to make a cottage industry for herself out of Asperger's. She can specialize in Asperger's but not make a big deal out if it. It's so clear she is attempting to market it.

I am actually using them to support a case, but, don't worry, it will ALL be said under my own name.

I don't want to show too much of my hand because the "opposition" may well see it...but I want to show that promoting Maxine Aston and Karen Rodham of FAAAS is evidence of negative discrimination against adults with AS within an organisation that claims to represent us at government level.

M.

That blog does come over as very angry judgemental - not that I'm saying the author doesn't have good reason to adopt that stance. Just that angry people aren't often very objective.

One sentence in there would seem feasible to objectively confirm or refute:
Aston lifted the "symptoms" straight out of the diagnostic criteria for Seasonal Affective Disorder.
I think it could be checked out objectively, just by looking up her description of this "Cassandra Affective Deprivation Disorder" and comparing that with SAD......is there a description of CADD anywhere in the public domain? There's the Cassandra Syndrome but maybe that's not the same. It'd be a shame to buy her books just for that. But I don't see anything particularly revealing in the SAD info I've looked at - that disorder seems to be little more than depression and/or anxiety that happens at a particular time of the year. I don't see how that could be "lifted" and have any meaning in the context of any Cassandra-type disorder, which presumably hinges on the sufferer feeling they're not being listened to?

Hmmm......the blogger isn't cutting much ice with me so far - though one inept blogger (if that's what that blogger is) doesn't mean the object of their hatred is innocent of course. More data required. I seem to be out of my depth.....

Believe it or not...Maxine just went and MADE THAT UP ALL BY HERSELF...no kidding...she also revises it and changes the name to try and promote it on Wikipedia (I sat her and watched her do it, more than once).

I have seen that blog, and to me, it just goes to show that "my enemy's enemy" is not always an automatically good choice of "new best friend", it's a bit creative and undisciplined...on the flip side...Maxine DOES like to get her submissive males out in force to defend her...but I can't say THAT to a tribunal, now CAN I?

However true it is...

M.

It would seem that anything submitted here would be heresay and not in evidence.

^^Well, it's clear that that syndrome is her own invention - and there's no Wikipedia entry for it yet as such, though there's something in the discussion about it.

http://www.maxineaston.co.uk/cassandra/
That link clarified things a bit for me - and also snuffs out any hope I had of testing the assertion that she lifted the syndrome details straight out of Seasonal Affective Disorder - the way she puts it completely pre-empts any appearance of plagiarism.....what she's saying is that her Cassandra thing parallels the Seasonal thing except that instead of suffering because of lack of light, the Cassandra person suffers the same thing because of lack of affection.

I guess, for me, it's better to put her ideas in the dock rather than the woman herself - though I wouldn't rule that out if she turned out to be peddling slander against Aspies.

So, I guess her point is that where an Aspie in a relationship refuses to consider AS as a possibility, the other partner is going to feel somewhat like Cassandra, unheard and therefore quite likely somewhat miserable. She's quite likely correct. But who the hell needs a guru to hand out a diagnosis to validate such a feeling?

My wife once told me simply that she thought I may have AS. I didn't believe it. She teaches special needs kids and reads a lot about autism, and I thought more than likely she was just seeing the syndrome she'd been studying in everybody, which is a common and very human mistake. But she didn't push the issue in my face, so I felt OK about checking it out, and after a while I did just that, and sure enough I scored high enough to warrant a DX. Now if she'd waded in and told me that some self-styled psychobabble guru had said she'd got Cassandra Affective Deprivation Disorder because of me being "in denial" over having AS, I seriously doubt I'd ever have bothered to do the online tests at all - I'd have just thought "poor woman's fallen for a charlatan" and felt quite insulted that she'd seen fit to hype up a simple suspicion into a load of pseudo-scientific crap in the hope of making it look more plausible. So I rather suspect that this Aston dame is doing more harm than good. Perhaps she means well, but really, what an insult to the intelligence!

i don't know Maxine Aston at all...but i do not find her books or views that offensive.
I do not see what is wrong with making a statement that it can be difficult for others to know how to live with people with autism or that we can be unfathomable to people who are not autistic or ASD.
I do not even have a problem with Cassandra Affective Disorder. Seems wuite plausible to me, although it may need more thorough research to back it up.

I read all the time - on WP - so much negativety about "NT" people. NT's this and NT's that and blah blah blah.

Quite frankly, i can only speak from my personal experience and I KNOW my ex-partner had a terrible time living with me and got very very down about knowing how to approach me and deal with how autism manifests in my life.
It is like a cross-cultural divide existed between us and this was exacerbated by my sensory problems and issues which made intimacy with me VERY difficult.

I have read Aston's book and I also read the Walker's account of an Asperger's Marriage.
I didn't really find them offensive at all.

If one wants to quiblle about her scientific methodology then that is a debate I am not willing to enter into as I don't know enough about her procedures to give an opinion. I have read teh whole Cassandra thing requires more research.

All i can go on is her books and her website (the latter was a bit pink and fluffy for me actually.) The former were ok...not as meaty as some other good autism books. BUt ok.


If a person lives with someone with an ASD who processes emotions very differently from the usual way they are processed, who is more internalised in their world and more interested in their special interests than the partner...I do not see that what is so wrong with saying this has an impact on the "NT" partner who may indeed require MORE emotional sustenance than someone like me is either inclined or willing or even able to give. I would maintain it is quite feasible that such a situation could lead to a feeling ofd sadness or gried or depression for the NT partner. Why is it wrong to say that or to open up a discussion on that?
We can be hard for others to understand. Big Deal.

FOr goodness sake, we often find the world difficult because its ways are constructed on the basis of a kind of emotional language and intuition that we struggle with. why wouldn't others struggle with us? THere is a fair bit of autism in my family.... i have a relative whose partner is also ASD and she struggles with his ways because they are so foreign to her. My sister struggles with knowing how to help and deal with her autistic son. MY ex struggled with me for years, just as I struggled with understanding him and other people who want to live more socially and emotionally communicatively than i am able to.

It doesn't have to be about anger, criticism and inflammation.
SUrely there can be a debate about these issues that can help all to become more educated and more insightful.
I read the blog cited above, and i thought it imbalanced and rather inflammatory and not really very objective.

As I say however, this is just from my perspective, so I do not mean it as a personal attack against anyone else with differing views or who may have had other experiences of the issue.

I was under the impression Maxine was in a relationship with an Aspie that ended. She draws on some of her own experiences. The blog article link was disappointing. The author looses credence with her opening paragraphs which appear to be a person attack on Aston. I have not taken a close look at what Maxine Aston writes therefore my comment is brief.

My own personal experience in a long term relationship has strong parrallels to the Cassandra theory. I truly believe in the theory of emotional deprivation for the non AS partner in many relationships, especially where the male is undiagnosed.

Tired of the many women who visit AS forums who are having relationship difficulties and ask, "Is my husband AS or just a Jerk", and then write a dialogue of patronising/mocking comments about Aspergers.

Got time to read the blog now...it wasn't the one I thought it was...

Actually it's pretty accurate...

I was floored earlier because the "final countdown" for this submission hit me suddenly, without warning, after a very long wait...I couldn't even think straight.

Maxine Aston (and Faaas) are only incidental to the submission, and not, in any way, the object of it.

Of course there is nothing wrong with acknowledging that relationship with people with AS can cause painful issues for either partner...

But Maxine Aston crossed the line in several ways:

*She invented her own disorder with no relevant qualifications or formal, peer reviewed, empirical research to support it.
*She strives to blames all the problems in a relationship, including any behavioural problem exhibited by the other partner on the partner with AS.
*She actively demonizes people with AS.
*She overcharges vulnerable people for both treatment and diagnoses she is not qualified to give.

I remember now...

M.