Psychology Today: Biased Asperger's Article!

Post Reply New Topic

One, whoever posted it (sorry, lost track of nested quotes), please stop with the "X hates us". Not being a cheering fan is not the same thing as hating.

Two, no, he does not want to help autistic people get work. He's more concerned with the employer, afraid of sticking the employer with actually disabled people who then can't be fired under ADA. He's got a pretty appalling attitude, if you ask me.

That's probably the real reason why people are pissed at the article and him. Not because he was stating a fact about the majority of autistics and how it affects them and keeps them unemployed.

I don't know-- all the self-love s**t that disappointed people feed me aside, that pretty accurately reflects my opinion of my own capabilities.

At this point, I would be really grateful for a sub-minimum wage job in a 'tard car wash, and a nice bed in a group home.

I'm tired of trying. Tired, frankly, of living.

In sixteen years-- sooner, if my husband leaves me and takes the kids-- I can blow my f*****g head off and be done with all of it.

He's yet another brick in the wall of the economic oppression ASD people face in the workplace. That he's a life coach came as no surprise at all.

I remember an episode where these kids dove into a swimming pool and came up in a hollow where there was a nice old woman. I think they decided to stay there.

The first episode you posted reminded me of a film called Falling Down:

Falling Down (1993)-IMDB

Hi Ann,

Nice icon, again!

How are you today?

Hi kortie,
That's a flower pot from my patio.
I am stressed about not being able to find tolerable employment (well actually, any employment.) I'm trying elance.
In the past I've been able to manage retail, but as I've gotten older I find I get too confused with all the stimuli.

Ever thought about data entry? That's what I do.

I'm fast with the alphabet, but not numbers. Also I have trouble concentrating on entry into the interface for long periods of time. When I was working as a cashier the repetitive scanning and entering of codes got to me. Made me feel like I was part of some huge machine.

It is me that wrote that. Since I joined this site on 8/26/13 on occasion I have written some very harsh things but I don't think I ever wrote the H-word about someone before. But that article to me was just dripping with sarcasm and complete utter contempt for us. His language was personal beyond cold business calculation. My God, even Autism Speaks attempts to mask their feelings with "it's autism" that is breaking up marragies etc. I do not remember seeing anything like that in professional blog so I reacted likewise. Rereading the blog I have seen no reason to retract what I wrote.

Yeah nice catch on the blog from two years back. More evidence that the article wasn't poorly researched, he does in fact have a very distorted negative view of people with autism. He can take all his faux-sympathy and shove it up his pretentious ass.

Yes, the man is a bigot. He put his hatred in a veil disguise of wanting to help. At least Stormfront makes no bones about who they are and at least they're in your face.

How is this article offensive, everything he wrote is right.

Disjointed monologues: check
Many are clumsy, with poor eye-hand coordination: check
They may have such mannerisms as odd posture, arm flapping, and body twisting: check
They can be socially naïve and unable to recognize humor: check
Some have unusual habits, for example, even scavenging through garbage cans to bring home used food scraps: I don't have this one, but I'm sure there are those that do.

And high levels of unemployment? check

The autism is a difference activists are even more annoying than Autism Speaks. These people are trying to re-define the criteria to their view, and use the "it's a spectrum" excuse. If you don't have many of the symptoms and are that mild, are you sure you're even autistic??

---

Acedia, it's not that these things aren't true. It is the attitude of the author. The article is not designed to be helpful, but rather to gently mock autistics. In an article for Psychology Today, I would expect more accepting and enlightening insights into the issue.

Like most life coaches (who are the latest reincarnation of new agers), he has a complete lack - even at moron level - of political awareness. What he experienced was the legitimate anger of an oppressed group. He was incapable of understanding that, and chose to stigmatise and further oppress them with his ignorant and arrogant "I am superior to them because they are different from me" attitudes.

If I had been then I would have been tempted to advise him to take some immediate procreative travel (which is a polite way of telling someone to Fk off!)

If you check out his yelp reviews, you'll get a different take: the guy's not just a charlatan, he's a total narcissist with bizarre behaviors. Anyway - the way to handle this one is not by going to Marty, but to the online editor for PT and their editorial board, with a screenshot of Marty's talk about people with disabilities in that blog post, and a polite explanation of how Marty's done many people with ASD a disservice in the PT post but doesn't seem to be able to recognize that. Say you're sure that PT doesn't want to be associated with people who would try to help employers evade ADA, and who'd deliberately avoid helping disabled people find work, and that you would like for them to remove the offending post. If they refuse, the next stop is other journalists, twitter, etc., with the story about how PT is hosting this guy and his startling views on disabled/autistic people.

That blogspot paragraph of his is a little gem, right down to the bit about how ethical he is not to help these people get jobs.