An Answer, but Not a Cure, for a Social Disorder

New York Times ^ | April 29, 2004 | AMY HARMON

[68skylark]

Usually I'm suspicious of psychology -- with some good reason, I think. On the other hand, it's done some good and there's a lot more good they could do with better knowledge and better paradigms. Psychologists are like the scientists who were just discovering electricity in the 18th century -- as they learn more in the next few hundred years, the advances might be quite amazing.

[thoughtomator]

Sounds like a lot of victimology to me. How long before they're prescribing hardcore drugs to children on some teacher's diagnosis of this?

Some people don't pick up on social cues, and can't tell what others are thinking or feeling, because they simply don't care.

[AdamSelene235]

I'm close to someone with Asperger's and its quite real (I'm also skeptical of shrinks).

Anyone who plays "Yellow Submarine" continously.....for weeks....without getting annoyed....is NOT neurotypical.

[drjulie]

You're right - psychology is a young science. What we've learned in the last decade is amazing; I can't imagine what the future holds. What you find suspicious is probably commercial mental health, not psychology. The public often sees them as one in the same.

[AdamSelene235]

Sounds like a lot of victimology to me.

This article seriously downplays the severity of Aspergers.

Some people don't pick up on social cues, and can't tell what others are thinking or feeling, because they simply don't care.

No, kids with Asperger's literally can't tell by voice tone when someone is getting irritated with them....You have to take them aside and teach them to read inflection.

Amusingly, they are poor liars as they have no appreciation of the mental state of others.

I spent....oh, 5 years explaining the concept of sarcasm to an autistic until he finally got it.

[sauropod]

read later

[68skylark]

Yeah, I wish I could see the advances over the next few hundred years -- it could be really amazing! My sister recently got her Ph.D. in psychology, and she's married to a child psychiatrist -- so while I'm suspicious of some of it, I also know something about a lot of great, caring people in the field.

[thoughtomator]

Interesting. I'm a poor liar myself, for the exact opposite reason - I am hypersensitive to the emotions of others... I can read the smallest emotion in inflection of voice or slight muscle movements in a face, and therefore can also read the damage that lying does to them.

I guess being a good liar requires being sensitive enough to know when your audience is receptive and when it is skeptical, but not so sensitive that you care what affect the lie has on them. Someone ought to dissect a Clinton or two and see if it has a biologial basis!

[El Gran Salseron]

"How long before they're prescribing hardcore drugs to children on some teacher's diagnosis of this?"

01. ) Teachers don't diagnose it.

02. ) There are no drugs to treat it.

[thoughtomator]

Those points used to be true for ADD/ADHD, but no longer. Is there anything more reliable to ease my concern?

[luvmyland]

I have interviewed young adults with Asperger's Syndrome and their parents as a Court Investigator. The article seems right on to me. The cluster of behaviors is very specific and it is very real. Interviewing someone with this disorder can be fun if you keep your sense of humor and realize that what looks like "tactlessness" is really just their complete honesty about what they are thinking. Its as though what they think, they do or say immediately with no filter.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

From reading this article, did you get the impression that those afflicted by this disorder "don't care", or do you "not read"?

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

Has it ever occurred to you that when you think you are reading someone's emotion in inflection you are wrong most of the time?

[thoughtomator]

Well, I know people who have similar symptoms which are not part of this disorder, but instead stem from pure self-absorption. So the question is: how do you tell one from the other?

[thoughtomator]

Yeah it has, I've tested that theory, but it didn't correlate to observed data.

[netmilsmom]

This is soooooo my MIL.

[Arthur McGowan]

That's right. There's no such thing as psychology. It's just that people go around refusing to conform.

[El Gran Salseron]

In the one case of which I am intimately aware.....a teacher noticed some unusual behavior in a student and recommended to the parents that they seek professional help. They brought him to a shrink. The shrink diagnosed Asperger's.

At this time there is no drug that can be prescribed and because the problem is so rare the drug companies are not going to invest money in trying to find a drug.

In children who are fully autistic they are experimenting with a drug that successfully defeats autism in 50% of those tested. It helped in another 25% and 0% results in the other 25% but the use of it is YEARS away.

[upchuck]

So this is my problem? And here I thought I was just another geek :)

[Cicero]

Interesting. It makes sense to me. Presumably there could be degrees of difficulty in relating to others, from full-fledged autism to serious Aspergers to just a touch of it. And there could be degrees of how children learn to deal with it by picking up other ways to make up for their deficiencies.