WrongPlanet Asperger’s and the Cheshire Cat

WrongPlanet.net – my birthday is for everyone else. https://www.wrongplanet.net/article350.html

The person making the post, and many of the people commenting, are ranting about not being party animals. Hate to break the news to these guys, but I don’t think it’s exclusively an aspie problem. Wonder if they even are aspie, considering all the parties they’re being invited to that they don’t want to attend!

Think Asperger’s, along with a host of other psychiatric disorders like ADHD and PDD-NOS, are being overdiagnosed. I don’t believe Asperger’s is a lack of social skills – there are plenty of socially awkward NTs out there, nor is it not enjoying parties – do they seriously believe all NTs enjoy parties? Extroverts may enjoy parties. But then there are the introverts, the shy, the socially phobic, inhibited, or inept, the highly sensitive, the geek or nerd, who try to avoid parties whenever they can. That is, if they even get invited to any parties to begin with.

Reminds me of the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland who was convinced he was mad (crazy) because his behavior was the exact opposite of a dog’s. As he said to Alice when she asked him how he knew he was mad –

‘To begin with,’ said the Cat, `a dog’s not mad. You grant that?’

`I suppose so,’ said Alice.

`Well, then,’ the Cat went on, `you see, a dog growls when it’s angry, and wags its tail when it’s pleased. Now I growl when I’m pleased, and wag my tail when I’m angry. Therefore I’m mad.’

`I call it purring, not growling,’ said Alice.

`Call it what you like,’ said the Cat.

The problem with the Cheshire cat wasn’t that he didn’t behave like a dog, (regardless of what his psychiatrist might have told him). His problem was that he didn’t realize he was a cat, and it’s alright to behave like a cat when you’re a cat. His problem was that his identity had more to do with not being a dog than with being a cat. In fact, he was so out of touch with being a cat, that he didn’t even know or care what purring was. (Sounds a lot like psychiatry to me!) 

Asperger’s is not a disease, they say on the site and bravo for them! But I don’t believe what they’re describing warrants  any label either, except for perhaps allowing themselves to be misled by those unfortunate souls with psychiatry disorder, psychiatrists - https://isnt.autistics.org/dsn-psy.html

 (DSN-IV – Psychotic Disorders – 669.xx Psychiatry Disorder.

A. Delusional thought patterns, consisting of at least two of the following:

• (1) Patronization    
• (2) Responsibility    
• (3) Thought Decryption    
• (4) Stereotyping - This is the belief that large numbers of very different people may be grouped into pre-defined categories of “illness.” Virtually any unusual or deviant behavior may be classified as an “illness” in this way, and then these illness may then be “treated” (i.e., the person may be made “normal,” or like the presumed mode of the populations). Often, it is assumed that what is good for one person in a certain category will be good for all or most others, and that they may be treated as all the same.    
• (5) Pseudoscientific

Oops – sacred cow! You can click the above link to read more from the brilliant satire by Jared Blackburn. This part is my favourite.

In addition, most (athough not all) psychiatrists have an impairment of receptive communication. Often, they will not listen, or fail to listen closely. They will often misinterpret statements made to them in such a way as to “prove” their preexisting delusions or to label the speaker as “sick.” Further, they are often quite literal minded, frequently taking figurative sayings or metaphors as concrete statements (thus producing a belief that the speaker is delusional and/or hallucinating). Very frequently, psychiatrists will give stereotyped responses based on a category to which the patient is believed to belong, even if though they have nothing to do with what the patient said actually said. It is uncertain whether these communication deficits are specifically related to psychiatry, or to comorbid neurotypical disorder. Clinical experience, however, suggests these communication deficits may be especially common and severe among psychiatrists.

More to come.