*grins* Depends which one of us you ask. If you ask me, the answer is a definite yes - the social aspects of it aren't that much of a problem these days (I'm almost 48, after all; I've had time to learn skills enough to 'pass'), but the sensory/processing aspects haven't changed. Some of them are very cool; some of them are annoying... *shrugs*... I wouldn't take the "normal pill" if it came with a million-dollar bonus, but sometimes I wish there was a cure for neurotypicality (http://home.att.net/~ascaris1/neurotypicality.html).
If you ask Kír, the answer is an equally-definite "no" - not because he denies the sensory/processing differences (which he too must cope with when he's corporeal, and finds very disconcerting), but rather because he denies the validity of 'autism' as a diagnostic category - in fact, denies the validity of the entire DSM-IV. I actually agree with him about that, because the DSM-IV is really nothing more than the modern-day Malleus Maleficarum, and he's right that what is called "autism" may have a dozen different causes, none of which have been determined - not to mention that no two autistics are ever alike - HOWEVER, I still think we do need a word, and the word "autism" works well enough. He says it doesn't; that it's inaccurate and perjorative. We could argue about it all month, and never agree, so... whatever.
If you asked Crist-Erui, assuming you were one of the handful of people he'll allow close enough to ask him anything, you'd get no useful response: he can talk, he apparently understands things just fine, but he almost never answers questions. A shrink who saw him would doubtless diagnose him as quite severely autistic, but no shrink ever will see him, so it's moot.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2005-07-27 01:47 am (UTC)If you ask Kír, the answer is an equally-definite "no" - not because he denies the sensory/processing differences (which he too must cope with when he's corporeal, and finds very disconcerting), but rather because he denies the validity of 'autism' as a diagnostic category - in fact, denies the validity of the entire DSM-IV. I actually agree with him about that, because the DSM-IV is really nothing more than the modern-day Malleus Maleficarum, and he's right that what is called "autism" may have a dozen different causes, none of which have been determined - not to mention that no two autistics are ever alike - HOWEVER, I still think we do need a word, and the word "autism" works well enough. He says it doesn't; that it's inaccurate and perjorative. We could argue about it all month, and never agree, so... whatever.
If you asked Crist-Erui, assuming you were one of the handful of people he'll allow close enough to ask him anything, you'd get no useful response: he can talk, he apparently understands things just fine, but he almost never answers questions. A shrink who saw him would doubtless diagnose him as quite severely autistic, but no shrink ever will see him, so it's moot.