Black and white thinking and other examples of Asperger's

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TRUE, I saw your post here and in the Ex-Cafe (yes, I go to both - can't a man have a gallon of coffee in peace?), and I was wondering (and feel free not to answer, of course) - what is this "other site" that gave you a hassle?

At least I've never been hassled here for posting in many multiple threads, sometimes with things that have nothing to do with the main thrust of the thread...

I have a lot of problems in this area as was pointed out by several therapist over the years.


I can not take certain jobs because they would require me to do things I think are "bad".....
sell people things they dont need
lie to people or exclude information that would result in their being mislead


even my current job,it bothers me that we tell the costumers that their pet will get 20min of exercise 2x daily,but if we are busy,the managers will make me take the dogs out of playroom as soon as the go to the bathroom(sometimes 5 min)I think this is wrong and have complained but they wont change it...thats false advertising...it really bothers me.

I stopped being "religious" after I found out religious groups were responsible for burning witches(had a "good witch"obsession in grade school)

A lot of times I can see each side of an arguement but there are specific....right and wrong,things that I am totally rigid about.I think this makes me appear as some what "juvinile" according to the cynical expectations of many in the NT adult populaion.Maybe thats why I got along with teens so well(in my 20's)because I thought they did...the world is not fare and it should be.

To the original poster:

What you are having is not black and white thinking.

You are perseverating your processing in the old context and having trouble initiating the new set of processes. These are not failings but part of your gift (and mine). You need to find another part that counter balances it for these kind of situations.

In my observation NTs are invariably black and white thinkers, and absurdly over-literal. They are not evil (well very few) it is just part of their own mix of gifts and disabilities. NTs waste their abilities on a huge scale and ask for help with their disabilities far too little. To ask for help with your disabilities is to help all society because the benefits radiate out amongst our neighbours inevitably, as we interact. This is what the Learning To Succeed course is about.

We auties and aspies are excellent at seeing areas of grey, as far as I have heard.

I'm freaking panicing because I can't understand any of what is being discussed. Good/bad? I can understand those terms, but if you go good/evil, neither exist to me, in a philosophical discussion. In a debate I can take either side and win type deal, see both sides of a point? Is it, I can see the good and if I can, I'm locked into everything is bad?

To me everything just "is". I make my value calls on the moment, in real time. If given time to think, I look at things probably from way to many angles, points of view, before I react or don't react at all, because it has gotten over whelming to me.

I'm not following this at all. Probably because I'm not thinking in black and white and it has set up a panic, lol. Or maybe I'm so grey I can't understand black and white thinking. ARGGGHHH!! !

Earliest memory of concrete or black/white thinking:
I was taken away from my Dad when I was 3 and had no memories of him at all. When I was 5 my mom remarried, and that's pretty much when my memories begin. One of my earliest memories was of being uncomfortable because they both wanted me to call my new stepdad "daddy" (I cringe just typing that) and I COULD NOT. I knew he was not my father, so how could I call this man 'daddy'? My mouth would not form the word.

There was no grey in there at all. Not my daddy - so couldn't call him daddy.

Just speaking for myself, I seem to have the opposite of black and white thinking - I see issues as a virtually infinite continuum of possible answers/solutions weighted by their probability. Similar to quantum wave functions. I actually seem to be completely incapable of seeing purely binary choices in most cases. (One of the major problems I had working for the current administration, which represents the definition of "NT black and white thinking")

While this can sometimes make decisions difficult, I think it much better represents reality. Black and White, Good and Evil, Right and Wrong, Beautiful and Ugly are not absolutes but relative concepts. (i.e. the Founding Fathers would probably have been considered terrorists defined in modern terms) At least when it comes to moral relativism and situational ethics, the Jesuits have it right.