Looks like the current internet trend is self diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome. Is this really a condition or is it another way excusing yourself for not trying hard enough? Or maybe an attempt to belong to a group? Why do people seem to be proud of their self diagnosed assburgers?
It's not just an internet trend. Certainly some of the people identifying themselves as high-functioning autistics online might just be poor spellers and too lazy to correct their mistakes, but the condition itself is real enough. As you'll know yourself if you ever meet anyone who suffers from it. Know any obsessives with emotionless, monotone voices, poor social and communication skills who respond inappropriately, or not at all, to the verbal and visual cues that the rest of us take for granted?
I've a friend I've known since childhood. When I first heard of Asperger's (from this Wired magazine article ) I immediately recognized my friend. He has always been a combination of Mr. Data and Rainman. His brother's wife once said to me it was as though he had been raised by wolves.
re. spelling. I think I'm right in saying that autistics have to learn every piece of information from scratch. That they're not capable of recognizing patterns - like those in language that Lou was talking about the other day, or in any other kind of information. So, in linguistic terms, they have to learn every single word they acquire by rote. Not 100% sure on this, so someone correct me if I'm wrong.
People who are lazy and self diagnose themselves with Asperger's obviously know nothing about the condition. And being part of a group is not high on the list of to do's. http://www.autism.org.uk/asperger
You mean in terms of age, sex, etc.? Not sure, though it seems to be more common in males. In fact, I've never heard of any female sufferers, though I'm guessing that these do exist.
I've seen a alot of that too. Those people are more disrespectful to people who have been diagnosed, than people who ask about it. "I'm being an ass? Not my fault! I have Aspergers" "I can't spell? Not my fault!, I have Aspergers" And what doctor told them that? None, they went to webmd.com and self diagnosed, and they took a medical class, so....
Laziness isn't a characteristic of Asperger's though. My point was that those who say they have it to excuse their lazy behaviour don't understand the key characteristics of that condition. I didn't really understand how I might have said the condition wasn't real. Perhaps they do have a condition, but there's a lot of misnomers about Asperger's.
I think that your level of intelligence is pretty much independent of how you are brought up, but your social intelligence is totally dependent on seeing behaviour such as sympathy, helping, fairness, patience etc. If someone is intelligent but has an emotionally poor upbringing, they willl probably make up the vast proportion of those who claim to have aspergers. I'm not saying that they don't have such a disability, they probably do.