Girls and Aspergers.

[reynardo]

The original article is here.

Psychologists refer to (being able to recognise the difference between your own ideas and guessing what the other peson would do) as a "theory of mind," and people who fail the Sally-Anne test are said to lack one, meaning they can't anticipate other people's thoughts and feelings.

...if you end up surrounded by the wrong people—mimicking their behavior without understanding the motivations behind it can lead to big trouble."

My life.

So much of my life.

And the clincher?

Simon Baron-Cohen, a renowned autism researcher, has shown that high levels of fetal testosterone may also play a role.

High levels of fetal testosterone are also what makes my ring finger a good centimetre longer than my index finger, what helps me with my maths and engineering - and what makes the whole "games people play" thing so incomprehensible to me.

How do I work things out? By going through *all* the possible reasons and combinations and trying to logically work it out from there. Except, when it comes to human behaviour, logic is not always the best tool to use.

Comments

[chaos-rose.livejournal.com]

Wow. Yep. Just wow.

[sandypawozbun.livejournal.com]

*huggles* It doesn't help much, but understanding does help a bit. :)

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

Crumbs no - that just wasn't a thing people talked about in my younger years. I certainly am thinking about doing it now, though - too much in this article makes sense for me not to.

[sly-girl.livejournal.com]

Simon Baron-Cohen

Which of course I initially parsed as Sacha Baron-Cohen which made me question the veracity of the research.

[sandypawozbun.livejournal.com]

*laugh* I read the same way.

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

It's his brother, believe it or not. A respected professor of developmental psychopathology.

[sly-girl.livejournal.com]

Cousin, according that that link.

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

You're right. Cousin. Totally cousin. And in conclusion, cousin.

[http://users.livejournal.com/raven_/]

Me three. Oops.

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, as far as I can tell, it just explains an awful lot. I've already worked out coping mechanisms for most things.

But it will be nice now being able to say "well, this is how I work, so how else would be a good way to do things?"

[domesticmouse.livejournal.com]

Sapia said I should talk with you, given that I'm an aspie and all. Not quite sure what to say, apart from Hi! =)

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

Hello there! She's a sweet lass.

[domesticmouse.livejournal.com]

Aye, and insightful to boot. =)

[freyaw.livejournal.com]

Me too.

I also add a certain amount of object-blindness (link is to a description of a more extreme difficulty) to the mix - for example, if a pen is not in the pen jar at work, if it is in the jar next to it, I have difficulty identifying it. So at various times of the day, I go around work putting things in the places where they are supposed to be so that when I need them, they are not incomprehensible objects.

[panacea1.livejournal.com]

My variant on this is "if the X is not Where I Left It and/or next to What I Left It Next To, then it stops existing." I have a very visual/spatial memory for things and space which is utterly discombobulated by house tidying. Put it in a drawer and it ceases to exist and I will either a) forget about it entirely, b) go out and buy another one because I don't have one and it would be really useful, and/or c) ransack the entire space spiralwise starting from where I think I last saw it, thus dislodging all kinds of other things from their natural place in the universe into some alternate dimension.

And I live with a tidier-upper who believes in coats hung on the rack, clean dishes in the cupboard, etc. Which can be baffling. Although after three years I'm starting to expect the dishes to be in the cupboard to the degree that I no longer can find them when they're still in the dish rack...


What do you mean? This is normal.

[freyaw.livejournal.com]

Yay! This makes sense to someone!

Personally, when it comes to things around the house, there are a couple of places where most things can be. Like shoes. Shoes exist next to the couch, under my computer desk, or next to the bed. Shoes only exist in the shoe cubbies if they are shoes that never go anywhere else. Shoes do not exist under the kitchen table (no matter that I sat down there and took them off when I got home) or in the bag I just brought them home in...

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

Hm, I don't how much this might apply personally. Sure, Aspergers is quite clear as a syndrome for trying to rationalise social and emotional behaviour when you don't have any natural understanding of the rules.

But I think the kind of anxiety that many (women, especially) feel about trying to understand the reasons for others' behaviour in order to try and do the best that one can for other people is something completely and utterly different.

The first is using rational means to interpret an unintelligible language as a survival mechanism. The second is a desire to avoid hurt and disharmony, and to maximise approval. The aspie people I know don't seem motivated much by approval per se, although they do like recognition.

Also, I think you're surrounded by a number of people on that spectrum. Being around that kind of thing constantly can influence one's self perception.

Anyway, not to entirely poo-poo these thoughts - I just can't put your level of social and personal engagement together with the kind of affect people I know with Aspergers have.