sionnach wrote:

"sionnach" wrote;


I'm reminded of a book by Bruno Bettelhiem,


As a side, but related, note:
Bettelheim* was the ass who promoted the notion that autism was caused by
what he called "refrigerator mothers", rather than the organic disorder that
it actually is. He later changed his mind, but not before immense damage
was done to many families.

*Correct spelling; I typo'd it in the first post.



Huh. Neither of my kids are anywhere "on the spectrum"* but my daughter
considers me a refrigerator mother and I can't say I mind terribly.
Actually, I'm kind of relieved.

She's finally showing an interest in learning to cook so she raids my
kitchen for supplies, seasonings and tools which are then abducted over
to the boyfriend's house to be used in their various experiments. I'm
used to coming home and finding my food processor, cookie sheets, racks,
the slow cooker or the mix master missing.

And my supplies of things like sesame oil, caesar dressing, wasabi
powder, tandoori seasoning mix, rice vinegar, white pepper, chipotle
chile powder and extra virgin oil seem to be dwindling faster than I can
account for.

I swear I bought a pound of extra firm tofu last week and now I'll be
damned if I can find it... Surely my husband didn't mistake it for
cream cheese and eat it on bagels? A half pound of mushrooms, a can of
bamboo shoots, another of water chestnuts three cans of chicken broth...
Sounds like somebody might be planning a stirfry. Or maybe hot and
sour soup.

And there's a ten pound sack of frozen chicken wingettes and drummies
gone missing from the downstairs freezer, along with a half gallon of
Frank's Red Hot Sauce. *That* I don't mind. I bought those on sale
immediately before my husband announced he was going on a diet. Lately
the kids been hosting a sort of potluck on Thursdays. They bake up a
huge batch of wings and make a couple of different kinds of sauces and
their friends bring over soda, beer and other munchies, and movies to
watch. Lots cheaper than Buffalo Wild Wings, even with Wing Night
Specials, but you have to do without the clouds of cigarette smoke,
horny frat boys, and the slow, rude service.

*As I said, neither of my kids show any real sign of asperger's or
autism, but my daughter has this ...look... that she can focus on
someone who has said or done something that she considers unspeakably
stupid. It's a look that says, "And what manner of specimen might this
be? A turnip, perhaps, and yet it vocalizes...".

I subbed in an Advanced Musical Theory class a few weeks back and there
were a handful of students who were definitely on the spectrum. A
couple were pretty far along, too. The worst was a boy, maybe 17, who
was apparently incapable of interacting with others on anything like a
normal basis outside of his music.

When he wasn't actually playing, he would walk over and stand and look
at me. Not the way a young man might check out an interesting female,
not the way a student might assess a new teacher, but the way you might
look at, I don't know, a painting, or a lamp or maybe an interesting
boulder that suddenly appeared in your environment. He actually walked
a circle around me, maintaining a distance of maybe 30". Too close for
my comfort so I kept turning to keep an eye on him. I asked him to
return to his seat and one of the other oddish students looked up and
said, "That's just his way, he won't hurt you, he just doen't know what
you are yet. Just ignore him."

And so I did my best but to be so closely scrutinized by someone who
shows no signs of recognizing my personhood was a very strange
experience. I drew the line when he tried to touch the silver clip in
my hair. He looked mildly surprised when I ducked and pushed his hand
away, then he went over, sat down at his piano and played.

His playing was brilliant. And if you didn't look at him, if you hadn't
seen, if you just closed your eyes and listened, it was all there. All
his missing pieces were there in his music. I can't imagine what will
become of him.

On Wed, 01 Apr 2009 09:44:43 -0500, Kathleen
wrote:


I subbed in an Advanced Musical Theory class a few weeks back and there
were a handful of students who were definitely on the spectrum. A
couple were pretty far along, too. The worst was a boy, maybe 17, who
was apparently incapable of interacting with others on anything like a
normal basis outside of his music.

When he wasn't actually playing, he would walk over and stand and look
at me. Not the way a young man might check out an interesting female,
not the way a student might assess a new teacher, but the way you might
look at, I don't know, a painting, or a lamp or maybe an interesting
boulder that suddenly appeared in your environment. He actually walked
a circle around me, maintaining a distance of maybe 30". Too close for
my comfort so I kept turning to keep an eye on him. I asked him to
return to his seat and one of the other oddish students looked up and
said, "That's just his way, he won't hurt you, he just doen't know what
you are yet. Just ignore him."

And so I did my best but to be so closely scrutinized by someone who
shows no signs of recognizing my personhood was a very strange
experience. I drew the line when he tried to touch the silver clip in
my hair. He looked mildly surprised when I ducked and pushed his hand
away, then he went over, sat down at his piano and played.

His playing was brilliant. And if you didn't look at him, if you hadn't
seen, if you just closed your eyes and listened, it was all there. All
his missing pieces were there in his music. I can't imagine what will
become of him.

That brought tears to my eyes. As a musician, I totally understand
one's soul being in one's music. But his soul *is* his music. I
can't imagine what will happen to him either.

sionnach wrote:

"Paul E. Schoen" wrote:
snip
Anyone who picks up the book is aware of that, and as a insight into the way
some autistic or Asperger's people percieve the world, it's worth reading.
As science, though.... I hae me doots.
I'll add that if I were going to recommend a book to give insight on what
it's like to be autistic, it would be "The Curious Incident of the Dog In
the Nighttime", by Mark Haddon.
snip
For a while I followed alt.support.autism and at that time that book was
frequently criticisized for presenting too much of a stereotype of an
autistic. Rainman had similar criticism. Having read the Curous Incident
I am inclined to agree with their criticism. The term autism encompases
a wide spectrum of characteristics and detailed portrait of a single
character is going to be misleading. Both works found it convenient to
show autistics who are extremely high functionionng in their
mathematical abilities, with extremely poor social skills and insight,
and math focussed obsessions and compulsions. An extreme personality
makes for more interesting reading, but not for general understanding.

Less than half of all autististics are high functioning, not all of
those are high functioning in math, and a small fraction of those ar
geniouses. While autism implies some degree of problems with social
skills the degree is variable and among high funcioning autistics often
compensatable. And while obsessions and compulsions are common (perhaps
as substitutes for social interactions) they need not be math based.

Instead I woud recommend books by neurologists such as Oliver Sachs or
Ramachandran. (I also recommend Klawens and Luria on general neurology,
but they write little about autism.) Their works as a whole cover a
larger variety of forms of autism, but also give more insight into the
general functioning of the brain that can help put the different forms
of autism into perspective.

--
Bill Clodius
los the lost and net the pet to email