{"id":1784,"date":"2010-10-11T11:29:56","date_gmt":"2010-10-11T16:29:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=1784"},"modified":"2010-10-11T11:29:56","modified_gmt":"2010-10-11T16:29:56","slug":"don-triplett-autistic-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=1784","title":{"rendered":"Don Triplett, Autistic #1"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a nice article in the October Atlantic Magazine about Donald Triplett<\/a>, the first human being diagnosed with autism<\/strong>. This is a well written article containing a very edifying human interest story; but most important (to me, anyway), it provides a valuable perspective on just what we do and do not know about autism. Bottom line here: we’re still not really sure just what autism is, despite all of the pontifications by the medical and psychological sciences pretending to have strict definitions and diagnostic tools. At bottom, \u201cwe know autism when we see it\u201d. <\/p>\n

Over the past year or so, I have ‘studied up’ on the question of Aspergers Syndrome and the dreaded \u201cautism spectrum\u201d. I have read articles and books, watched videos about autistic people, and have rubbed elbows with a group of young adults who identify themselves as \u201cAspies\u201d or \u201chigh functioning autistics\u201d (at a monthly Meet-Up group). Obviously I’m trying to learn more about myself, about where I fit in. Yes, I could pay a shrink a couple of thousand bucks to get a \u201cprofessional diagnosis\u201d, but I’d rather \u201ctake the journey\u201d and save myself the grand or two. <\/p>\n

FOOTNOTE: Although I do hope to use what I’m learning on my journey to help those who do have this condition, in some small way; I do realize that it’s not all about me.<\/p>\n

So obviously, the article on Mr. Triplett is a valuable addition to my \u201cjourney\u201d. But it triggered another thought about Aspergers and the broad spectrum of autism (if there really is such a \u201cbroad spectrum\u201d versus a grab-bag of mostly-unique conditions stemming from complex inter-mixes of life history, family and social relationships, genetic factors, psychological factors, physiological factors, environmental factors, etc.). What if the emerging concept of \u201corchid children\u201d<\/strong> applies to Aspies and others who are termed \u201chigh functioning autistics\u201d? Based on my limited knowledge of the orchid concept (from another Atlantic article<\/a> several months ago), <\/p>\n

I can’t help but wonder if the difference between Aspies who manage to live independent and mostly successful lives, and those with severe mental and behavioral problems requiring on-going care, might turn on certain experiences from early in life (e.g., parenting style) which push one or another alternative response button somewhere in our genes. That influence might also require continuing supporting care from the family and community.<\/p>\n

I myself had about the best parents<\/strong> that a kid could have had. They had a few quirks that I remember, they weren’t perfect; but the bottom line was that they were 1000% devoted to my brother and me. You could say that I experienced a \u201cwarm mothering style\u201d, and that even if my father could be a bit \u201cdistant\u201d at times, he was always there for us; he left us no doubt that he would always be in our corner. I have some behavioral traits and human interaction styles that hint at Aspergers. But unlike Mr. Triplett and many other children who are defined as \u201cautistic\u201d, I was always aware of and concerned about the people around me. Even if I was frequently befuddled about communicating and interacting with other people (and still am sometimes!), I always wanted friends and family and community (and still do!). <\/p>\n

I can’t help but wonder if my mother and father managed to push some genetic button in me that set my neurons up in such a way that I like people (in spite of some other genes that make it difficult for me to non-verbally communicate with them). And I can’t help but wonder: had my parents utilized other \u201cparenting styles\u201d, might I now be more like the \u201cAspies\u201d that I have read about and watched on videos and talked to at the meet-ups (with a lot of effort on my part!) . . . <\/p>\n

Well, this is obviously just some S.W.A.G.<\/a> on my part. A professional researcher on autism might laugh me off the map here. But it appears that the professionals are still in a fog about it themselves; recall that seventy years ago, when Mr. Triplett’s parents went to shrinks for help, they had no idea what autism was. It was only in response to the young Donald Triplett that Dr. Leo Kanner urged the psychotherapist profession to start a new category, i.e. \u2018autistic disturbance of affective contact’. Over the past seventy years, they have studied autism extensively and society has became more and more aware of it (until today, it is a hot topic, even a political thing). But every discovery and every attempt to categorize what they observe seems to open up many new questions. I.e., the more we know, the more we realize how much we don’t know. So I will throw the \u201corchid Aspie child\u201d hypothesis out there, for what little it may be worth. <\/p>\n

And I will conclude with the idea that Mr. Triplett’s nice life story itself is evidence of \u201corchid-ness\u201d. Don Triplett had concerned, devoted parents and a close-knit community supporting him throughout his life. He obviously had and still has many mental and behavioral limitations, but he has lived a long, good, fulfilled life. It’s a darn shame that everyone doesn’t get to have parents like his \u2013 and like my own . . . may they rest in well deserved peace (or even better, may they live on in God’s eternal love).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s a nice article in the October Atlantic Magazine about Donald Triplett, the first human being diagnosed with autism. This is a well written article containing a very edifying human interest story; but most important (to me, anyway), it provides a valuable perspective on just what we do and do not know about autism. Bottom […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,17,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1784"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1789,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1784\/revisions\/1789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}