I read about the Asperger syndrome and I couldn’t relate to that more. For the first time I can identify so much traits that I just can’t help but believing I have it. It’s not like watching TV program’s “are you too stressed out in the urban city?” sort of way, I kind of found it funny.
Asperger syndrome was named after Hans Asperger who, in 1944, described children in his practice who lacked nonverbal communication skills, failed to demonstrate empathy with their peers, and were physically clumsy.
Some characteristics of Asperger syndrome:
Social Interaction It is worth noting that because it is classified as a spectrum disorder, some people with Asperger syndrome are nearly normal in their ability to read and use facial expressions and other subtle forms of communication. However, this ability does not come naturally to most people with Asperger syndrome. Such people must learn social skills intellectually, delaying social development. For example, many people with Asperger syndrome have difficulty with eye contact. Some make very little eye contact because they find it overwhelming, whereas others have un modulated, staring eye contact that can cause discomfort to other people. Similarly, the use of gestures may be almost nonexistent or may seem exaggerated and differ from what would normally be considered appropriate for a situation. Narrow, Intense Interests Asperger syndrome can involve an intense and obsessive level of focus on things of interest. [..] Particularly common interests are means of transport (such as trains), computers, math (particularly specific aspects, such as pi), wikipedia, and dinosaurs. Note that all of these last items are normal interests in ordinary children; the difference in Asperger children is the unusual intensity of their interest. (Speech/Language) Peculiarities People with Asperger syndrome often have little patience for things outside these areas of interest. During the school years, many are perceived as highly intelligent underachievers or overachievers, clearly capable of outperforming their peers in their field of interest yet persistently unmotivated to do regular homework assignments (sometimes even in their areas of interest). Others, in contrast, may be hyper motivated to outperform peers in school. Many people with Asperger syndrome also make idiosyncratic use of words, including new coinages and unusual juxtapositions. This can develop into a rare gift for humor (especially puns, wordplay, doggerel, satire) or writing. Other Characteristics In general, orderly things appeal to people with Asperger’s. Some researchers mention the imposition of rigid routines (on self or others) as a criterion for diagnosing this condition. It appears that changes to their routines cause inordinate levels of anxiety for at least some people with this condition.
One interesting fact people found out was the vast majority of software developers seem to demonstrate Asperger behaviors. Not only that, I believe the above characteristics pretty much obviously describes the “geeky guy” doing complicated high IQ things usually seen in movies.
If that is the case, then we (yes I’ve already identified myself as having Asperger syndrome) probably are not patients, and I just came up with a brilliant but very stunning analogy to prove my point:
We’ve all seen Discovery Channel’s Animal Planet showing the marvelous creation of mother Earth. We see lions, tigers, dolphins, elephants and sometimes whales. The camera pans across impossible angles while the narrator analyzes and describes the behavior of what the flock of monkeys are doing jumping up and down the trees.
Wait! Isn’t that we are just learning social behavior intellectually right there? It seems we as human beings can’t quite “feel the subtexts” of monkeys’, dolphins’ social interactions, even though we’ve always said we are the highest order of living being. Now we even have a University degree programme for this kind of thing. Isn’t that exactly what the psychologists, what Hans Asperger describe the syndrome patients were doing?
From this perspective, we can basically view “normal” people as lower forms of beings, and the “patients” have no choice but to try to understand their interactions intellectually. Maybe that’s why Einstein didn’t start to speak until he was 3 year old. He didn’t really “get” what these other guys around him are doing. Just as if I put someone among a flock of pigs, he couldn’t know what to do. But if I were to put him there long enough, he would finally adapt by maybe learning it intellectually, and he would probably get along pretty well with the pigs. In the pigs’ eyes, that guy is acting strange and all that, but he can still blend in somewhat, given long enough time.
Yeah, that was fun. We should probably call this “syndrome patients” “smarties” from now on 🙂
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