corroonb wrote:
I've been wondering about this for a while and I think it's an important issue for any autistic person. Should we pretend to be something we are not to fit in with a majority who may or may not be intolerant of our differences?
There seems to be a lot of pressure applied by psychiatrists, psychologists and therapists to normalize behaviour. There is an enormous societal emphasis placed on working with others particularly in a business and, increasingly, in an academic context. I can pretend if I need to but I increasingly resent doing so.
Should you pretend or not?
Thats like asking "should you breath oxegon or not?"
Ofcourse you have to pretend.
You gotta learn to be a team player in life or you gonna die.
There are rare individuals on the spectrum who have some marketable skill and can make tons of money say programing computers, and they dont have to interact with other people much. But those are the exceptions.
However you might say that they put too much emphasis on correcting the weaknesses of aspies and auties and not enough on building upon their strengths. But they still have weaknesses to attend to. And those weakness are socializing. The world aint going to meet you halfway to accomadate you being socially impaired.