Autistic culture

Autistic culture is a concept created in the spirit of Deaf culturethat says that autismis a valid and unique way of being and not a disorder to be cured. This viewpoint includes the belief that the neurological differences (often called neurodiversity) of autistic individuals can be viewed as a beneficial mutation resulting in the development of a genetically distinct minority group, similar in many ways to a minority race. Some autistics do not subscribe to this way of thinking.

Is autistic culture a real culture?

Not everyone agrees on what a cultureis, or what should be its defining characteristics. However, most cultural anthropologyas of 2006define a culture as follows: (1) Culture is based on symbols, abstract ways of referring to and understanding ideas, objects, feelings, or behaviors -? and the ability to communicate with symbols using language. (2) Culture is shared. People in the same society share common behaviors and ways of thinking through culture. (3) Culture is learned. While people biologically inherit many physical traits and behavioral instincts, culture is socially inherited. A person must learn culture from other people in a society. (4) Culture is adaptive. People use culture to flexibly and quickly adjust to changes in the world around them. (Source: Encarta article on culture.

According to these definitions, autistics who communicate are perhaps in the beginning stages of forming a real culture. Many features of what are commonly called cultures are visible in the autistic culture. There are shared beliefs, organisations, language, and art that are specific to the group, and there is a tendency to marry within the group. Autistic culture can be learned via the growing number of books and websites, and through gatherings such as Autreat. An ability to rely on other autistics for emotional or pragmatic support may allow autistics to adjust more easily to the world-at-large.

Nevertheless, there are some who dispute the existence of an autistic culture. More discussion of this issue is required.

Proponents

Proponents of autistic culture include Martijn Dekker, who has written a paper On Our Own Terms: Emerging Autistic Culture, and Dawn Prince-Hughes, who credits the rise of autistic culture to the Internet.

Beliefs

Autistic culture holds a concept that autism, as a valid and unique way of being, should be embraced and appreciated, not shunned or cured. Many autistic individuals prefer being alone to socializing. Many appreciate mathematics, science, science fiction, and computers. (While such interests are found in a larger portion of the autistic population than the neurotypicalpopulation, there are also many autistic people who have no special talents in these areas.) Many autistic people describe a feeling that they are aliensor that they understand what an alien must feel like.

Organizations

Autistic culture has organizations such as Aspies For Freedomor Autism Network International. Such groups seek to promote social tolerance of autistic people.

Literature

Through The Eyes Of Aliens by Jasmine O'Neillis a book by an autistic woman who writes but does not speak. Miss O'Neill describes autism as a way of perceiving and being in the world, rather than as an illness. This is the view shared and promoted by autistic culture.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is a novelwhose main character is a communicating autistic. This book is slightly controversial, as the author himself is not autistic and based his character on an admittedly small sampling, plus using Simon Baron-Cohen's "theory of mind" idea which is not accepted by all researchers, let alone by autistics themselves. Other autistics describe the book as "wonderfully accurate" in its depiction of how they experience life. The young man in the story is portrayed as being able to think, feel, and reason. He methodically creates and carries out plans to uncover the truth about his family. He attends a school whose programs enable him to interact with others and accomplish basic life skills without forcing him to pretend to be "normal" or make him ashamed of who he is.

Not Even Wrong is an autobiographicalaccount by Paul Collins, a historian who views his autistic son as a happy, healthy child and resists the mainstream idea that autism is a crippling disease. Educating himself as well as the reader in the history and background of autism, Collins searches for (and finds) a school where his son's strengths as an autistic will be encouraged rather than suppressed. He points out that autistic people can and do communicate. The book is as much intended for autistic people as it is for parents and others who need to know that autistics are not vegetables.

Art

The oddizmswebsite has artwork that presents the anti-cure viewpoint. Other artwork with this perspective are Autistic Pride Virtual Greeting Cards(2006-01-26: Scripts are down due to DOS attacks; go to the autistics.org main page. Some autistic people are artists, and some are art savants. The autistics.org weblinkshas links to websites on the artsin autistic culture. Another autistic artist whose poster art and accompanying explanations contribute to autistic culture is Jessica Park.

Language

Although autistic culture doesn't have its own language, some jargonis commonly used by those in the autistic community. These words are often coined by people on mailing lists or other discussion forums, then the usage spreads to other forums and throughout the community. Some words, such as aspie, are used by more in the culture than others. In addition, many of these words are specific to the anti-cure autism culture. These words include:

• Asperger autism -- Alternate name for Asperger syndrome. Asperger syndrome is also frequently abbreviated as "Asperger's."
• Aspergian -- Used by many aspies to describe themselves, emphasizing the idea that autism is a culture.
• Aspie -- A short-hand way to refer to a person with Asperger syndrome. Some people use it to refer to those on the whole autism spectrumrather than just those with Asperger's.
• Autie -- A short-hand way to refer to an autistic person. Popularized by autistic author Donna Williams. Sometimes it is used only to refer to those specifically diagnosed with classic autism instead of Asperger's or PDD-NOS, and sometimes it refers to the whole spectrum.
• Cousin -- A cousin is someone who is not technically autistic in the clinical use of the word, but is still similar enough to autistic people to be as much a part of autistic culture as someone officially diagnosable with autism. Sometimes these people are similar because they have a similar condition (although a cousin doesn't have to have any psychological conditions) such as schizoid personality disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, social anxiety disorder, or hyperlexia. AC is often used to stand for "autistics and cousins."
• Curebie -- A derogatory term referring to a person with the desire to cure autism-- more to the point, one who believes that a cure is the only answer, and tends to an evangelistic attitude on this subject. These people are usually viewed in a negative light in autistic culture.
• Neurodiversity -- A concept of tolerance of people regardless of neurological wiring.
• Neurotypical -- Usually abbreviated NT. Refers to a person who is not on the autistic spectrum, although the technical meaning of the word is a bit ambiguous.
• Uncle Tom aspies -- Applied by some aspies to those who kowtowto the whims of NTs or the NT mindset.

Tendency to marry within the group

Popular misconception has it that autistics never marry because they haven't enough social perceptiveness or ability to interact intimately or fulfill the demands of a marriage. However, some autistics do pursue relationships and commitments. Often but not always, an autistic will choose an autistic partner because shared interests and similar personality types are more often found within the group. Multi-generational autistic families are not uncommon. Some autistics find supportive non-autistic partners. Even those who do not feel the desire to have a sexual relationship might pursue marriage out of a need for companionship.

Representations of autistic culture

Main article: Autistic community

Autistic culture appears on many websites, but is also prominent in other forms such as mailing lists, newsgroups, and IRC.

Relation to geeks and nerds

It should be further noted that the "autism as a world view, and way of thinking" is sometimes associated with aptitude for technical pursuits. Some people see geeksand nerdsas having some characteristics in common with autistic people. However, many autistic people have difficulty with the amount of group collaboration needed in the workforce; many believe the strong desire for "team-working" makes things very difficult for autistics.

Some autistics who have actually held down a technical position report that, though they are often shunned (or manipulated/misdirected and unfairly criticised) by ambitious types, they are generally well liked by their colleagues, who appreciate their candour, technical ability, and general willingness to help others. They also report that they are frequently held to be disruptive or not "team players" (in the sense of being cooperative), which can feel like a foreign concept to many autistics. In addition, many autistics tend to think of competition as against self or against challenges (seeking to excel) rather than against others.

Autistic Pride Day

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Main article: Autistic Pride Day

Autistic Pride Day is a celebration of the 'neurodiversity' of individuals on the autism spectrum which is celebrated on June 18of each year. The event started in 2005in order to promote the belief that those identified as autistic are not suffering from a pathologicaldiseaseany more than those with dark skin are suffering from a form of skin disease.

Autistic pride advocates believe that medical scienceis permeated by the notion of racial purity, in terms of the human raceas a whole. In their opinion, this concept seems to reflect a belief that every human brainshould be identical. Advocates of autistic pride claim that the notion that there is an ideal, and thus desirable, structure to the human brain leads many practitioners of psychiatryto assume that any deviation requires a "cure" to achieve conformity to the 'neurotypical' norm. Some supporters believe that advocates of a cure for autism are actually promoting a form of ethnic cleansing. All believe that, at a bare minimum, there should be greater consideration shown for members of the autistic community as unique individuals.

Advocates of autistic pride point out that homosexualitywas once classified as a form of mental illnessthat could be treated medically with libido-reducing hormonaltherapy. Only after the gay rightsmovement achieved its goal of social tolerancetowards diversity of sexual orientationdid this classification become obsolete. One of the enduring expressions of this movement is gay pride. The Autistic Pride Day hopes to start the same process of education of this view and activism, with the goals of promoting the basic human rightsof autistics and finding a valued home for their individual voice and talents in modern society.

Autistic Pride Day is an initiative by Aspies For Freedom. This autism rights group aims to educate the general public with such initiatives to end ignorance of the issues involved within the autistic community.

The theme for 2005 is "Acceptance, not cure". The theme is changed annually. The main event of 2005 was in Brasília, capital of Brazil.

See also

• Autism rights movement
• Autistic community
• Controversies in autism

External links

• Aspergian Pride- 'Celebrating the accomplishments of autistic people'
• Aspergia- 'Promoting the development of an Aspergian cultural identity'
• Aspergian Island- 'Unofficial discussion board of Aspergia'
• SpectrumHaven- 'Information and chat for all people on the autistic spectrum'
• Autism Network International- 'Self-help and advocacy organization'
• Autistic Pride Day- 'Official site'
• A.S.W.C- 'Developing online autism communities and promoting autism rights.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autistic+culture Wikipedia article Autistic culture.