Archive for October, 2011

your dreams will be reduced down to breathing, and you will be grateful

The thing about not-being-a-person is: They will say those people and the price of being a person is to nod and agree that yes, those people aren’t people at all. They will have no idea who they are talking to. You yourself will start to forget, too. They will say a million small things that sow the seeds for violence done against you, and you will smile and let them. You will do math, constantly. How much do I want to be a person today? How much do I want this project to succeed? How much honesty can I afford? How much dishonesty will kill me? What is the cost of coming out? Is there a way to delay, soften, transmute? How long can I survive as half a person? Ever since the world ended ... I don't go out as much. People that I once befriended, just don't bother to stay in touch. Things that used to seem so splendid, don't really matter today. It's just as well the world ended -- it wasn't working anyway. Your dreams will be reduced down to breathing. [Read More]

on 03/5/12 | 2 Comments | Read More

I Hate Cold Calling

For an introvert few tasks can be as daunting and titanic as making a cold call.  The very idea of disturbing an unseen stranger over the telephone fills us with anxiety. -We wouldn’t want to ...[Read More]

on 10/31/11 | No Comments | Read More

Navigating Competing Worlds: The Elusive Ideal of Normalcy

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been very busy with my job and with getting acclimated to the routine of my graduate program. I’ve formed a great connection with the little guy I care for, and in ...[Read More]

on 10/28/11 | 2 Comments | Read More

Quiet Hands

1. When I was a little girl, they held my hands down in tacky glue while I cried. 2. I’m a lot bigger than them now. Walking down a hall to a meeting, my hand flies out to feel the textur...[Read More]

on 10/27/11 | 16 Comments | Read More

Grabbers

It’s a grabbers vs. flappers warzone. On the one side are the flappers. We wave and twist our hands in front of our faces or slap them against our chests. Our heads punctuate our moods and the ...[Read More]

on 10/27/11 | 1 Comment | Read More

Mind conversation with myself

Mind conversation with myself. How to speak about the differences in perceiving the world before you learn that your view of the world is not the typical way? How would you know the difference be...[Read More]

on 10/26/11 | No Comments | Read More

Occupy The DSM (Open Letter and Petition to the DSM-5 Task Force and the APA)

To the DSM-5 Task Force and the American Psychiatric Association: As you are aware, the DSM is a central component of the research, education, and practice of most licensed psychologists in the Un...[Read More]

on 10/25/11 | 1 Comment | Read More

Introversion and Schizoid Traits

Not so long ago, I was dropped a link by a reader to Wikipedia’s entry on schizoid personality disorder.  I was shocked as I read it over. I read through the descriptions and lists on this page ...[Read More]

on 10/24/11 | 1 Comment | Read More

Autism, Culture, & Representation (course description & reading list)

TOPICS IN DISABILITY CULTURES: ENGLISH 416 @ UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Course description Public discourse on autism has reached critical mass. It’s hard to open a newspaper, change a TV channel, or...[Read More]

on 10/21/11 | No Comments | Read More

Evidence Christ Was Autistic?

Here is the abstract from a recently published paper (Izuma 2011): People act more prosocially when they know they are watched by others, an everyday observation borne out by studies from behaviora...[Read More]

on 10/20/11 | No Comments | Read More

Diary of a Drooler

This is a story about disability. This is a story about the politics of drool. This is a lot of things, and maybe you should just read it. 1. So I want you to imagine being born a drooler. ...[Read More]

on 10/19/11 | 1 Comment | Read More

Why Shouldn’t It Be Easy For Everyone? Why Shouldn’t It Be Easy For Autistics?

Just a quick companion piece here for Zygmunt's account of his grappling with the social justice system of extroverts -- a group that if not provably neurologically distinct, certainly seems to have i...[Read More]

on 10/17/11 | 1 Comment | Read More

Extroverts and the Concept of ‘Deserval’

We turn on the TV and encountering the concept is inevitable: “I deserve it.” says a waifish, urban thirty-something woman as she justifies buying that expensive dress or that decadent slice o...[Read More]

on 10/17/11 | No Comments | Read More

Thinking In Binary: Recently at Reddit

This conversation (below) along with a parallel comment on another thread caused me to dig up a Douglas Rushkoff quote that keeps coming back to me: "The digital realm is biased toward choice, beca...[Read More]

on 10/12/11 | 10 Comments | Read More

What Is Psychopathy’s Place In Neurodiversity?

Psychopaths loom large in the autistic anxiety closet. Our single-day traffic record at Shift Journal belongs to Scott Shea's Spotting Psychopaths in the Workplace, which garnered nearly 1800 hits o...[Read More]

on 10/11/11 | 5 Comments | Read More

Life After Mass Society?

I received this comment from a reader: Hey this is Adi. I have been reading a lot of your posts and like this blog a lot and I am posting for the first time. I have a question that has been bugg...[Read More]

on 10/10/11 | No Comments | Read More

Book Review: “Blazing My Trail: Living and Thriving with Autism” by Rachel B. Cohen-Rottenberg

"Blazing My Trail: Living and Thriving with Autism" by Rachel B. Cohen-Rottenberg is a "sequel" to "The Uncharted Path" which I reviewed here and followed up here. When we last left Rachel's story...[Read More]

on 10/7/11 | No Comments | Read More

Thoreau’s Visit from a Canadian Woodcutter — Conversations (pt. 2)

He was so genuine and unsophisticated that no introduction would serve to introduce him, more than if you introduced a woodchuck to your neighbor. He had got to find him out as you did. He would no...[Read More]

on 10/6/11 | No Comments | Read More

Thoreau’s Visit from a Canadian Woodcutter — Description (pt. 1)

Rather than trying to spark a debate over postmortem diagnoses, the primary intent here is to showcase and encourage an appreciation for Thoreau's fascination with and delight in his neighbor who was ...[Read More]

on 10/6/11 | No Comments | Read More

Indistinguishability and Modeling- or, To a Friend or Three

I think that for too many of us, we are brought up to look for role models upon which to model our behavior. This modeling is something that I think is sometimes so very encouraged in some of us- ...[Read More]

on 10/4/11 | No Comments | Read More

When it comes to development differences, environment dictates when it’s a disability

The other day, the governor of Texas, Rick Perry, commented that attention-deficit disorder should be a "paddleable offense." He compares ADD/ADHD to having "ants in the pants," and says that some k...[Read More]

on 10/3/11 | 1 Comment | Read More

Introverts vs. Extroverts: Learning

The acquisition of knowledge has a very different meaning to introverts and extroverts. Extroverts:  Learning is a means to an ends Introverts: Learning is an end unto itself. Extroverts lea...[Read More]

on 10/3/11 | 3 Comments | Read More