Politics

Emergence (Shift Journal Inaugural Keynote)

On the autism rights and neurodiversity blogs in July last year, fury erupted around the radio show host Michael Savage’s comments that autistic kids were brats. Savage said that autism was a “fra... [Read More]

on 01/16/12 | No Comments | Read More

Pieces of Suicide

There’s a little back-and-forth echo that’s popped up between this site and Julia Bascom’s. This entry aims to amplify that little echo. Here’s Julia yesterday at her blog Just Stimming, after... [Read More]

on 12/13/11 | No Comments | Read More

Speech (without a title)

Hi. My name is Julia Bascom and I’ve had it easy. I had it easy. What this means is that in fifth grade I was the smartest kid in the class. I also did a lot of hiding under my desk, and I talked fu... [Read More]

on 12/12/11 | 1 Comment | Read More

Autistics Speaking Day – Changing from shame to pride

My post for the Autistics Speaking Day. It’s very common for autistic people to feel burdensome for our loved ones and for society, common to feel shame of being autistic, it’s sadly expected the ... [Read More]

on 11/11/11 | 1 Comment | 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 United... [Read More]

on 10/25/11 | 1 Comment | 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. ... [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 hav... [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 of ra... [Read More]

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

Autism War Fizzles Out

Five years ago, the Combating Autism Act was passed with great fanfare, authorizing a billion dollars in federal spending for autism research. The act’s proponents made clear, in language every bit... [Read More]

on 09/30/11 | No Comments | Read More

Welcome, Crow’s Eye Readers

We’ve been getting a significant traffic bump from the recent comments thread and/or the blogroll (thanks, Jack) over at political blog The Crow’s Eye, and since it may not be readily apparent wha... [Read More]

on 09/29/11 | No Comments | Read More

Unwarranted Conclusions and the Potential for Harm: My Reply to Simon Baron-Cohen

I want to thank Simon Baron-Cohen for taking the time to respond, in his September 10th post on the Autism Blogs Directory, to one of my early pieces on autism and empathy. I am very gratified that he... [Read More]

on 09/21/11 | 9 Comments | Read More

Introverts: Denizens of a Social Ghetto

When we say the word ghetto, we generally think of rap, thugs, and crime. What we usually think of is a modern economic ghetto, a neighborhood where all the poorest people live and can’t afford t... [Read More]

on 09/12/11 | 1 Comment | Read More

The Empathy Issue Is a Human Rights Issue

Empathy. For most people, the word is synonymous with humanity. The American Psychological Association calls empathy “the trait that makes us human.” 1 According to author D.H. Pink, empathy is �... [Read More]

on 09/9/11 | 3 Comments | Read More

Reflections on a Changing World

The neurodiversity movement got its start in the early 1990s, when a few autistic people got together on mailing lists and dared to imagine a day when they would be seen as equals in society. Their co... [Read More]

on 08/1/11 | No Comments | Read More

Soon: An Urgent Communiqué of Vital Import …

A Wild Communiqué Appears! Floating in over the transom this morning came an inspired, rambling, two-part missive, part neurodiversity manifesto, part invitation to a flash mob, part lulzsensical cal... [Read More]

on 07/21/11 | No Comments | Read More

Autism Research, Prenatal Testing, and “The Autistic Genocide Clock”

As originally posted, this page was a response to an article published on MSNBC.com on Feb. 23, 2005, in which Dr. Joseph Buxbaum, a prominent research scientist, predicted that genetic research on au... [Read More]

on 07/19/11 | 1 Comment | Read More

Update: Psychopaths, Sociopaths, ASPD and ASD/Aspergers: Recap and Resources

A few years ago there was a rage among psychologists and sociologists looking at the prevalence of sociopaths/psychopaths in the workplace. I got caught up in that and did a ton of research; at one p... [Read More]

on 07/14/11 | No Comments | Read More

Narcissism, ASPD and ASD/Aspergers

Narcissistic people and Sociopaths/Psychopaths are very similar in their effects on the ASD population in that dealing with either is stressful and can damage our self-esteem and career. However they... [Read More]

on 07/14/11 | No Comments | Read More

Protecting Yourself Against Psychopaths in the Workplace

Once you suspect that you are working with or for (and in some cases above) a sociopath/psychopath/ASPD person the next step is protecting yourself. This protection goes beyond just keeping your job ... [Read More]

on 07/7/11 | No Comments | Read More

Spotting Psychopaths in the Workplace

One of my favorite books is Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe: A Novel. There is a chapter that starts out talking about how a complete stranger is the only person to spot that an antago... [Read More]

on 06/30/11 | 20 Comments | Read More

Conflict in the workplace: Introduction to Psychopaths, Sociopaths and Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Psychopath. Sociopath. Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD). Whatever you want to call it, in the workplace, these individuals are poison and prey upon their coworkers as means to get an end … ... [Read More]

on 06/30/11 | 3 Comments | Read More

How to Live With an Introvert Roommate

To comfortably share an abode with a Subtle sort of person, one must extend but one basic principle to all dealings: -Reduce social obligation and friction of association. I must begin by explaining t... [Read More]

on 05/23/11 | No Comments | Read More

You keep using that word …

“Bullying” seems to be the word of the week here in the autistosphere, and some much-needed attention is being given the harm done by bullies and their supporters. There seems, however, to be a b... [Read More]

on 05/5/11 | 1 Comment | Read More

Social Choreography/The Mark of Cain

Quite simply, some of us never picked up basic social norms during childhood. Consider: one can almost tell a Brit and an American apart by their age lines. Each adheres to a different set of ortho... [Read More]

on 04/25/11 | No Comments | Read More

Waiting for the Fireworks

It turns out that last Friday’s post on Dan Haggard’s in-depth movie review The Social Network, the End of Intimacy, and the Birth of Hacker Sensibility went up one day shy of a year since... [Read More]

on 03/18/11 | 3 Comments | Read More

Wandering: A Dangerous New Proposal

Last week, the ICD-9-CM Coordination and Maintenance Committee met to discuss the future of medical coding in the United States. The ICD-9-CM stands for the International Classification of Diseases, N... [Read More]

on 03/14/11 | 4 Comments | Read More

Elephant on the Loose

As Shift Journal’s sidebar indicates, we spend a lot of time around here discussing alternative ways of defining autism. That discussion got particularly lively over the past two weeks, with much b... [Read More]

on 02/16/11 | 5 Comments | Read More

Fault Lines

Those of us who have raised children know what often happens after pointing out muddy footprints on the floor, dishes left on the table from an afternoon snack, or some other dereliction of duty. Wit... [Read More]

on 02/2/11 | 5 Comments | Read More

WARNING! Oxytocin the xenophobia drug!

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has published online ahead of full publication a science journal paper with the title Oxytocin promotes human ethnocentrism In case you were not awa... [Read More]

on 02/1/11 | 2 Comments | Read More

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back?

Just a few quick thoughts while I continue to piece together future posts. In comments to Sarah Schneider’s piece republished here last week (Allen Frances gave us the Asperger’s “epidemic” �... [Read More]

on 01/14/11 | 3 Comments | Read More

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