An ‘Aspie’ Catholic Reflects on the Present Situation…

Landscape

I’ve always had a natural bent toward anxiety.

Partly this comes from being on the autism spectrum, an experience that can be very isolating; situations that serve to remind people of their contingency will affect any sane human in some fashion, but can tend to have a pronounced effect on those already predisposed to angst.

Anxiety, according to Paul Tillich, is finite being in awareness of itself. Indeed the idea of a self-conscious physical organism is more than a little dangerous in that respect. If we want empirical proof of that, we have but to consider that humans are the only earthly creatures that get anxious.

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Thoughts on ‘Social Strategies Linked to Anxiety in Autism’

Well if you’re looking for a worthwhile and timely read, you might check out the following Brianna Abbott article, which was published today in Spectrum:

Use of certain social strategies linked to anxiety in autism

Paradoxical anxiety

The first paragraph of Abbot’s article gives us a good sense

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On the ‘Magical World’ Theory of Autism — Part 1: Micro-Magic

I’m not sure where to begin with this one.

I suppose I could start by noting the paradox of it: A condition traditionally associated with an excess of logical thinking, and concomitant deficit in affect, is here being linked to magical thinking.

On the other hand, neither is the image of the ethereal autistic child and her faraway gaze

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Response to ‘Is there an Autism Fairy?’

This is something I published over a year ago on my now defunct autism website, Forming Horizons.  David Snape was kind enough to reblog it shortly after, giving it greater exposure than it would otherwise have enjoyed.

Here it is now, edited and trimmed a bit, for my Into the Dance readership:

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Two Old School Principles for a New Approach to Autism — Part 2: ‘Co-Inherence’

In part one, I made the point that learning information doesn’t make sense (pun intended) apart from its sensory basis in early life — when, in philosophical terms, we start to abstract form from matter.

And I noted the sensory dysregulation that comes with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and its potential consequences for information processing.

Now we turn to an even older principle, to which English poet and Theologian Charles Williams referred as co-inherence.

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Two Old School Principles For a New Approach to Autism — Part 1: Information

Sometimes we have to go back in order to go forward.

With that in mind, let’s look at a couple of classic, practical concepts that could help turn the tide toward progress in relating to people with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs).

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The Autism ‘Dance’ — Part 5: The ‘Dance’ Part…

For parts 1-4, click here

Let’s do a quick summary.  Here are some key points from part 4 regarding the premise of Forming Horizons:

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The Autism ‘Dance’ — Part 4: The ‘How’ and ‘Why’ of a Society-Autism Encounter

For parts 1-3, click here

Ok — let me start by quoting myself:

[W]hen it comes to understanding people and their perspectives, nothing works better than encounter.

Encounter is, however, a formidable prospect for many people on the autism spectrum. And let’s face it,

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The Autism ‘Dance’ — Part 3: Perception

For parts 1 and 2, click here

Okay — so in part 1 we talked bout my former autism website, Forming Horizons, and about a more traditional understanding of the word horizons as denoting limits rather than limitlessness.

Then in part 2 we talked about how, working within the “horizons” an ASD diagnosis brings (to all parties involved), we can discover and realize a greater range of possibilities than we thought existed by giving form to the potential inherent therein.

(“Potential” and “horizons” are interchangeable terms for our purposes — hence, Forming Horizons).

But we also recognized that it’s not that easy, that there are very real challenges that need to be faced.  I maintain that perception is a key source of both trouble and, more importantly, opportunity.

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The Autism ‘Dance’ — Part 2: ‘Forming’ Potential

For part 1, click here

We left off talking about my former autism website, Forming Horizons, and about a more traditional understanding of the word horizons as denoting limits rather than limitlessness.

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