Lili Marlene

Perth, Australia

Lili signed the petition | 11 months ago

Shut Down Gaddafi State TV!
Lili commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

Top 10 Books and Websites

I'd like to mention a web site about Asperger syndrome that I have come across. It is full of quotes from people who have AS from all over the world, and it also contains personal observations by the author, "a Swedish female diagnosed AS/HFA" named Inger Loreli. She also has synaesthesia. I have not read every word at this web site, but what I have read is very thoughtful and worthwhile.

Inside perspectives of Asperger syndrome & the neuro-diversity spectrum
http://www.creative-minds.info/index.htm
Lili signed the petition | almost 3 years ago

Oppose the use of alarmist rhetoric about autism
Lili commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

Changing People to Fit Jobs, or Finding Jobs to Fit People?

I very much agree with the points made in this excellent article.

For every autistic special interest, I'm sure there is some niche somewhere, some specialized job or place, in which that obsession is the norm and does not look out of place.

Ms Raymaker suggested that the so-called expert at the careers workshop got it so wrong possibly because he/she was likely influenced by defect (medical model) thinking about disability. Is it also possible that autism is currently a very unfashionable and pathologized condtion because our society has been, in recent decades, very much influenced by the viewpoint of women working in professions and careers, and the values and demands that are commonly found in such professions and workplaces? To illustrate what I mean; my father worked in engineering/technician type jobs (as is often the case with the fathers of autists like myself). I imagine he would be the last person to identify Aspergers as a devastating problem, as in his type of work AS might be an advantage more than a problem. I'm sure he worked beside at least one brilliant autist during his career. My Dad's world of work was one in which the only females were secretaries or office-women. The world of techical stuff and engineering, my Dad's working world, has had little influence on the cultural values and intellectual fashions of the rest of society, because it has nothing to do with the media or education or people. It is the female-dominated professions and workplaces that heavily influence the wider society today. That is why the viewpoints and values of autists and techies and systemizer males are barely represented within the wider culture. Our cultural values have become dangerously one-sided.
Lili commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

Older Dads: The Truth Smarts?

Eccentric AS type people sometimes marry or pair-up later than their NT peers, because unusual people often find that it takes longer to find their perfect match,ecause their perfect match may also be an unusual type of person. Should these relationships produce children, the kids will have older fathers. This is the obvious explanation for why autism might be associated with older fathers, and it has nothing to do with new mutations.
Lili commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

Autism and Empathy

I believe the word "empathy" has been used in so many different ways to mean so many different things that is now a word which is likely to cause confusion whenever it is used, because people interpret it differently. I would like to see the use of the word abandoned, to be replaced by a group of words that have more fixed and precise meanings.

In any case, the phrase "lack of empathy" is often used to describe criminal psychopaths, and many writers on the subject of criminal psychopathy state or seem to assume that a lack of understanding of or sharing of the feelings of others is the basis of this type of behaviour, even though these writers often also give descriptions of psychopaths who clearly have good interpersonal skills, which seems like a possible contradiction.
Lili commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

Autism and Empathy

I concluded years ago that Professor Baron-Cohen does not understand the (huge and many-faceted) difference between sociopaths/psychopaths/anti-social personalities and autistic people, and I don't expect that situation to change.

If you really want to find out about people who genuinely lack empathy, you have to speak with clinicians who have extensive professional experience in dealing with convicted criminals and law enforcement. As far as I know, no autism expert of international standing has any such experience. A lack of emapthy isn't merely a lack of smiles and hugs, it is an utter lack of regard for the welfare and rights of others.
Lili commented on the article | about 3 years ago

A Little Autism in All of Us?

In my opinion, the idea that the autistic spectrum is not a distinct condition, and it shades into "normality" (whatever that is), is a most plausible idea that is consistent with current autism theories and scientific knowledge. But I think it is taking this idea way too far to say that all people have some autistic traits. This could only be true if you count just about any human quirk or disability as an autistic trait, and I don't do that myself.

I do think the idea that all people "suffer from" their own unique genetic syndrome is an idea that has some merit. According to this idea, identical twins would be naturally members of a "support group" of 2 "sufferers".

The opposite of autistic isn't normal, because there are surely hundreds or thousands of different ways of being abnormal that aren't autsm.

Hey Kristina, I'm a synaesthete too! I find it's an interesting condition, but no big deal really.
Lili commented on the article | about 3 years ago

Self-Narrating Zoo Exhibits, Walking Autism Textbooks, and Other Beasts to Beware

If there hadn't been so many bizarre things written about autism there wouldn't be so many people asking bizarre questions about autism.
Lili commented on the article | about 3 years ago

Top 10 Books and Websites

Someone mentioned a book that was apparently written under a psuedonym to protect the privacy of the child written about. It seems to me that there are good arguments for and against authors writing about the autistic spectrum to conceal their identity. There must be huge ethical concerns when writers choose to write about their autistic offspring or autistic family members. Even when an autistic adult writes an autobiography it can cause readers to ponder whether their kin are also autistic, as we know the autistic spectrum is in many cases based on genetics. And the very nature of autism is so personal that it's hard to write about a neuro-atypical life without writing stuff that very revealing. But on the other hand, if you are making important or controversial claims about the autistic spectrum based on accounts of personal experiences, people will have the right to ask who you really are. I think the whole business of writing about the autistic spectrum is an ethical minefield and a tricky business.

I believe there is at least one book in my list by an author who is published under a psuedonym, and I can understand why they might have chosen that option.