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'It is no coincidence that autism was first pathologised in Nazi-occupied Austria and the United States in the early 1940s, in countries and at a time that saw the ruthless enforcement of conformity and compliance and the perception of individual expression as an act of treason or a sign of mental illness. (And the more the world slides back into authoritarianism, the more people will be diagnosed with autism.)'
Full Article: The Autistic Neanderthal Theory (How Neanderthal Assimilation Created Modern Humans)
'Our intellectual advantage and our supposed social deficits are two sides of the same coin, and any attempts at "correcting" the latter will diminish that advantage.'
In this hypothesis I argue, based on my model of The Neurological Spectrum - Between Individual and Collective Identity, that autism is a social construct for those who resist social conditioning, and that human progress is driven by people who resist social conditioning with examples throughout history.
Full Article: How Humans Progress: The Deindividuation Resister Hypothesis
Here I use six historical and contemporary examples to demonstrate that autism is the driving force for scientists, artists and human rights activists rather than an obstacle to be overcome.
Full Article: The Necessity of Autism
Full Article: Why Applied Behaviour Analysis Harms Your Autistic Child
'We are far more likely to be helpful than we are to be docile. Therefore a request is more likely to have the desired effect than a demand; asking, "I’m busy with the laundry, would you mind doing the dishes?" has more chance of success than just saying, "Do the dishes!"’
In this article I write about many facets of autism and help parents and caregivers understand how our minds work and how they can support us.
Full Article: Understanding Autism
This was the first article in which I took a closer look at our resistance to group dynamics and peer pressure and our scepticism of authority figures. It was also the springboard for the aforementioned Deindividuation Resister Hypothesis which I developed three years later.
Full Article: Autism v Group Dynamics & Authority
Full Article: What Is Low-Functioning Autism?
Full Article: The Case For Organic Education
Full Article: An Affectionate Letter to All Autistic Children
'Homo sapiens were quite unremarkable until they met the highly sophisticated Neanderthals. Assimilating the Neanderthal led to the Upper Palaeolithic Revolution and the emergence of modern humans since it caused a drastic increase in Homo sapiens’ brain size and consequently brought about their rapid evolution by combining the creativity, resourcefulness and inquisitive spirit of Neanderthals, who were of an individual nature, with the ambition and networking skills of Homo sapiens, who were of a social nature.
Since the Neanderthal assimilation most Homo sapiens have retained their predominantly social nature and therefore tend to ostracise those of a predominantly individual nature who, beginning in the 1940s, are being pathologised with the label of autism.
However, human progress is driven by autistic individuals because of their original thinking, lack of conformity, immunity to group dynamics and peer pressure, scepticism of authority and discontentment with the status quo.'
'All children are born with individual identities, but almost all of them undergo social conditioning and are forced to take on collective identities instead. Human progress is driven by people who resist social conditioning (or are not subjected to it in the first place) and retain their individual identities at the cost of being ostracised and pathologised while those who identify collectively provide the network to spread it. […] It's like using the Roman infrastructure to fight Roman oppression. This means that nature actually intends our exhausting and life-draining struggle against the savage mainstream.'
'It’s our failure to conform to society, it’s our failure to think the way others think, it’s our failure to subscribe to group dynamics and groupthink, it’s our failure to give in to peer pressure, it’s our failure to blindly follow tradition, it’s our failure to unquestioningly obey authority, and it’s our failure to accept the status quo that have driven human progress for tens of thousands of years, thanks to autistic individuals who successfully resisted attempts at being mainstreamed.'
After autism had been pathologised in the 1940s, many behavioural 'therapies' were developed to suppress our identities, the most widespread and persistent one being ABA (on whose model one of its pioneers later developed his gay conversion therapy).
'In order to avoid ostracisation and repercussions, many autistic people (subconsciously or consciously) temporarily suppress their individual identities and try to take on the collective identities of their surroundings by copying the behaviours and opinions of others, especially in formal (and therefore extremely stressful) environments like school, workplace and church. This coping mechanism (which is practically self-prescribed ABA) is known as masking, and pretending to be someone we are not is quite exhausting and mentally and even physically draining; therefore many of us need to let off steam as soon as we return to a safe(r) environment while others may need sufficient time to ourselves to recuperate. Long-term masking can also lead to autistic burnout.'
'Another reason for us being, on average, more tolerant than others again lies in the social nature of mainstream people who tend to identify with groups rather than as individuals. These groups, such as nationality, race or religion, tend to foster an us-v-them mentality that views outsiders and other groups with suspicion and animosity. In many cases the group identity is used to instil an irrational fear and hatred of other groups who, in fact, don’t pose any threat. Because of our individual nature autistic people are less likely to judge people by their group affiliation.'
You probably heard a lot about ‘low-functioning autism’ which makes as much sense as ‘low-functioning left-handedness’. Besides the possibility of an autistic person being affected by an actual disability (in which case autism can’t be blamed), low-functioningness usually occurs as a reaction to said attempts to suppress our individual identities or as a response to pressure or discouragement.
Traditional education systems are designed to enforce compliance and conformity and to suppress individual expression and critical thinking. And while this type of education is harmful to all children, it is unbearable for autistic children and accounts for all our problems in the school system.
Ken Robinson's model of Organic Education would benefit all children as well as society itself by producing more educated, creative and critical individuals, and it would remove the barriers for autistic children.
There are very few resources to explain their neurological orientation to autistic children without giving the impression that there is something wrong with them. This is one of them.
