Autism and Education; Science and Me
Autism and Education; Science and Me
Intro to Aspergers
What is Asperger's Syndrome? In this episode, find out not only what Asperger's Syndrome is and its symptoms, but also learn about what its like to have the syndrome. Learn from this Aspie (as we call ourselves), the history of the syndrome and other cool information about emotions, empathy, and the future of the name of the syndrome.
Side note:
If you want to read about the history of the namesake of this disorder, click here:
Asperger Case Study
If you want some children's books about the disorder, and autism in general, click here:
Asperger Cats
Autistic Cats
AspiePerspective
Citations:
1. Autism Speaks. (2005). What is Asperger syndrome? Autism Speaks. Retrieved December 27, 2021, from https://www.autismspeaks.org/types-autism-what-asperger-syndrome
2. Brewer, R. L. (2020, June 1). Empathy vs. sympathy vs. apathy (grammar rules). Writer's Digest. Retrieved January 1, 2022, from https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/empathy-vs-sympathy-vs-apathy-grammar-rules
3. Czech H. (2018). Hans Asperger, National Socialism, and "race hygiene" in Nazi-era Vienna. Molecular autism, 9, 29. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-018-0208-6
4. Gilmore, H., MSW, BCBA. (2019, November 16). Levels of Autism: Understanding the Different Types of ASD. Retrieved December 30, 2020, from https://psychcentral.com/pro/child-therapist/2019/11/levels-of-autism-understanding-the-different-types-of-asd
5. Juan, S. (2006). Asperger's Disorder: When you are Robbed of Empathy. In The odd brain: mysteries of our weird & wonderful brains explained (pp. 9–15). New York: MJF Books.
6. National Institute of Mental Health. (2018, March). Autism Spectrum Disorder. Retrieved April 11, 2020, from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/autism-spectrum-disorders-asd/index.shtml
7. Poquérusse, J., Pastore, L., Dellantonio, S., & Esposito, G. (2018). Alexithymia and Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Complex Relationship. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 1196. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01196
8. Wing L. (1981). Asperger's syndrome: a clinical account. Psychological medicine, 11(1), 115–129. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0033291700053332
So, I’m still here. I’m back. I’m not dead. Not yet anyway. I wanted to post at least one episode every month, but as an educator who returned to live instruction in September, free time is limited. These episodes take a lot of time to make, and while I do enjoy researching and writing these episodes, there are other tasks and activities I like to do to manage my overall mental health. My health comes first, then my students and work, then this podcast. But, now with that out of the way. Welcome back to class. Enough with the intro. You’re listening to Autism and Education, Science and Me. I am your host, Thomas Herrera. On today’s overdue episode we’ve got Asperger’s Syndrome. This is Intro to Asperger’s on Autism and Education; Science and Me. Let’s dive right in.
We interrupt the regularly scheduled program to bring you this important message. From this podcast forward, I will use the abbreviation AS for Asperger’s Syndrome, and ASD for Autism Spectrum Disorder. Back to our regularly scheduled programing.
I wrote down some questions that need answers. What is AS? What are its symptoms? Is it any different from ASD? If so, why is it different? Was there not an outcry in recent years about AS? Find these answers and more on today’s episode!
Our discussion begins with the basics. What is AS? Let’s start with a quote that sounds like it came out of The Twilight Zone. Imagine Forrest Whitaker saying this line instead of my melodious voice. “It is when you are robbed of empathy. Or if you have empathy, you cannot or do not show it. Yet no is to blame. It is called Asperger’s Syndrome (AS). But it is also known as Asperger’s disorder, or now simply Asperger’s5.” I really like this quote, not just because it sounds so cool, but because its honestly correct. As someone with the disorder, this is spot on. At times I have empathy and cannot show it, or sometimes I feel like I have no empathy. See next episode for a more in-depth analysis on my symptoms. For years I have struggle with my empathy. Full disclosure, I never really researched my disorder until I started this podcast. Now that I have, I recognize a lot of my behaviors. It’s a weird feeling.
Quick side note: Are there any famous people who have had AS? I can name four individuals, all men, who have or are believed to have AS. These individuals are Sir Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, the film director Stanley Kubrick and Satoshi Tajiri—the creator of Pokémon5. These are rather famous individuals with very successful lives. This is your public service announcement: you may be different but even you can make a difference. Side not over.
Look to the quote again. If you have the disorder you are either robbed of empathy or are not able to show empathy. But what is empathy? I struggle with the differences between empathy, apathy, and sympathy. Well, empathy is having the ability to understand another person's experiences from their point of view. Sympathy is having the ability to share feelings of sadness for another person’s misfortune. Apathy is a complete lack of feeling or concern for something or someone2. When you are robbed of empathy, you cannot really connect with someone else’s viewpoint and come across as being cold and distant. You see the world as an outsider. Remember my wedding episode? In that episode I described attending a wedding as if I was an anthropologist observing a foreign culture. I saw the party and recognized that people were having fun, but I did not share in those feelings. This is a common occurrence; I am often watching people feeling emotions and not necessarily feeling it.
On the other hand, you could have empathy, but are unable to show it. You could feel hungry, sad, happy, mad, love, etc.. You could have those emotions but are unable to process it and show it to others. More on that in a bit. Aside from the empathy issues, are their other traits or symptoms of AS?
Symptoms vary from affected individual to affected individual. Individuals with AS, or Aspies, ignore topics that do not interest them, and have the tendency to repeat specific behaviors. Aspies also have problems with nonverbal communication, and may show socially and emotionally inappropriate behavior5. Autism Speaks, a wonderful website dedicated to ASD awareness, says that Aspies have difficulty with social interactions, constrained interests, a desire to keep things the same, and distinctive strengths. These strengths include remarkable focus and persistence when engaged on their interested topics, while also exceling at recognizing patterns and paying great attention to detail. But, they may also be hypersensitive to external stimuli, and have difficulty not only with nonverbal conservation skills, but also with the give and take of conversation1.
Do you remember at the start when I said that I never really researched my disorder prior to starting this podcast? Well, while I was researching for this episode I came across this gem of a personality test. I read a few articles on the topic and thought to myself, “♪♫Oh my god! I have this! ♪♫” I took a few diagnostic tests, and just for fun, had both parents take the test as well. Can you take a guess on the results? Unsurprisingly, my parents being neurotypical, or at least more neurotypical than me, tested as not having this personality trait.
I tested as having this personality trait.
Now, all three tests said that they were not valid tests, and if I really wanted to know if I had this personality trait I should seek someone qualified. So, what is this personality trait I keep going on about?
Alexithymia.
I’ll say it again.
Alexithymia.
A-l-e-x-i-t-h-y-m-i-a.
Alexithymia.
As I often say in my classroom, let’s break down this word into its individual parts. Breaking the word apart we get, a • lexis • thymos. A- means lack or without, lexis means words, and thymos refers to mood or emotion. Combined, we get a lack of terms to express emotions and moods. Alexithymia was first introduced by Peter E. Sifneos in the early 1970s. According to modern research, about 50% of all individuals with ASD are estimated to have alexithymia. A common trait with patients is that they have the inability to verbalize their emotions. This is because they are either unaware of the feelings that correspond to specific emotions, or they confuse emotions with bodily feelings. Today we characterize alexithymia by the impairment in the awareness of emotions due to a deficit in processing of affective information, or changes of the mood.
Alexithymic characteristics include difficulty identifying feelings and distinguishing between feelings and bodily sensations of emotional arousal (emotions caused by a stimulus). It also includes difficulty describing feelings to other people, as well as difficulty understanding and describing the emotions of others. Other characteristics include a reduced ability to fantasize and to imagine, and having trouble understanding other points of view. The lack of emotional awareness leads to difficulty understanding other's emotions. As such, they have trouble interpreting or recognizing emotional stimuli both verbal and nonverbal7.
So that was a bundle of text. In more simpler terms, alexithymia is characterized by individuals not being able to articulate how they are feeling at any given moment. They have no words for their feelings and have trouble differentiating between feelings and bodily functions. Imagine you are shivering. An alexithymic individual would be unable to decide if the shiver was because they were cold, or because they were sad, frightened, or grossed out. (That has happened to me on many occasions.) As a result of not understanding basic emotions, they cannot recognize emotions in other people, or even subtle emotions picked up from body language.
This is something I have trouble with. I know basic emotions, I know when I’m hungry, sad, mad, happy, or upset. But other than that, I can’t really recognize other feelings. Or if I can, I cannot recognize it right away. Many times, I have been asked how I was feeling about something, and I just couldn’t answer. “I don’t know.” Was all I could say. I truly had no vocabulary for that emotion.
As a matter of fact, as I was writing this very paragraph (8:15 PM on 12/27/2021) I was feeling very emotional. So emotional in fact that my eyes were starting to tear up a little. I felt something off, but couldn’t place it. I don’t know what emotion I felt. It could have been dread; it could have been shame. It could have been anger or disappointment in myself, because yet again I couldn’t articulate well enough to show my thoughts. It could have been a combination of both anger and disappointment. I felt as if I wanted to cry, but I couldn’t find those other feelings associated with crying because of sadness, happiness, or anger. In that moment, I couldn’t tell you how it felt. Of course, as things often go, several days later, I found the emotion I was feeling. Vulnerable. That is the best fit for the emotion I felt.
Having trouble imagining what that’s like? Me too. Welcome to my world. Maybe this will help:
Imagine there’s a lion on the loose. It's a big deal. Everyone knows there is a lion is the loose. People took to the streets to form a lion brigade; the lion brigade not only warns everyone that there's a lion on the loose, but they also put up huge signs clearly saying that there is a lion on the loose. At this point everyone in the world knows there is a lion on the loose. Then, there's you. You heard the rumors, and you internalized it. You know there’s a lion on the loose. And then you turn the corner: and boom there’s the lion.
A normal person, would think, “There’s the lion I heard about.” Your first reaction? "Oh. What’s a lion doing here? On the loose. Don't eat me." In that very moment, your mind goes blank, and you forgot about the fact that there’s a lion on the loose. You are caught by surprise every time. You may remember before and after, but in the moment, you forget! And then you get eaten by the lion.
Sucks to be you.
This is what happens to me all the time. Whenever I need to address an emotion or something, my mind goes blank, and I cannot think of the emotion I am feeling. It happens every time. And it only gets worse the more I try to think about the emotion in question. Imagine studying for a test, and reviewing so carefully that you can teach an entire class about the test! Then you go and take the test, and forget everything immediately. When the test is over, your memory comes back. Trying to describe this sensation, is very hard for me to do, and hopefully these analogies at least help paint a clearer picture. If not, I’m sorry. I tried my best; this is the best I can do.
Sometimes, it makes me wonder. How would I feel if I was normal? How would I feel if I was neurotypical? Would I be able to describe my feelings? Could I experience what it feels like to know what you are feeling outside of the basic, happy, sad, angry, or hunger?
God only knows.
Up to this point, we were discussing AS, but did you notice any similarities between it and ASD?
Well, you should. That was a trick question. We even discussed that in episode 1 of this podcast. But, in case you weren’t listening, here is a refresher.
AS was once a separate diagnosis from ASD. They were related, like how lions and tigers are both cats, but different enough to classified separately. You don’t call a lion a tiger or a tiger a lion. They are two separate felines with specific categories for each. What separates AS from ASD is a that Aspies have typical to strong verbal language skills and intellectual abilities. In 1994, AS was its own diagnosis, but 19 years later in 2013, it was folded into one umbrella term of ASD1. As someone who was diagnosed in 2011, it was still separate. Nowadays, they probably just say oh hey, ASD.
Remember, ASD is defined as deficits in social communication and interaction behaviors, and restrictive/repetitive behaviors6. ASD has three distinct levels, Level 1 Requiring support, Level 2 Requiring substantial support, and Level 3 Requiring very substantial support. Your level determines how severe the deficits are. Level 1 is the least severe while Level 3 is the most severe4. Aspies are in Level 1 of ASD. Too long didn’t hear, AS is under the umbrella of ASD. They are related but not synonymous. All Aspies have ASD, but not all individuals with ASD are Aspies. Get it? Aspies are more highly functioning than ASD individuals. We share similar traits and behaviors, but are classified differently.
Moving on. AS is less severe than ASD. But why was it called Asperger’s Syndrome? Was Asperger a person? Yes, yes he was. In 1944, a man by the name of Hans Asperger noticed four strikingly similar young patients who showed the same behaviors. It wasn’t until 1981 when a British psychiatrist named Lorna Wing, coined the term “Asperger Syndrome” after reviewing several case studies1. So, Hans Asperger was credited with discovering the syndrome. What did his research show about the syndrome? According to Wing’s case studies, the following are the notes from Asperger’s 34 case studies of individuals with AS.
Children affected by AS will begin speech development like neurotypical individuals, but the full command of grammar is acquired later in life. Their speech tends to be abnormal, albeit pedantic, and often discuss at length topics they find interesting. They may also repeat some words or phrases again and again. In addition to repetitive and droning voices, individuals may show little facial expressions and have difficulty understanding other people’s expressions. Likewise, while they misinterpret or ignore non-verbal signs such as gestures or body language, they also have very limited gestures, or their gestures are large and clumsy. The most obvious impaired characteristic is two-way social interaction. This is not due to a desire to withdraw from social contact, but rather a lack of ability to understand and use the rules of social behavior. The rules of social behavior are unwritten and unstated, complex, constantly changing, and affect speech, gestures, posture, movement, eye contact, choice of clothing, proximity to others, and many other aspects of behavior. Individuals have very poor fine motor skills. Individuals have excellent rote memories; they also have an intense interest in one or two subjects, but often neglect other subjects they are not interested in. As a result, they absorb every available fact about their chosen field, and can discuss it at length, whether the listener is interested in it8!
Pretty much one-to-one with what I outlined above. Good to know the original source material was not that different from what we now know. Now, saying that, I do need to address the elephant in the room. A few years ago, Hans Asperger was put under scrutiny, as his past was dug out. Why? Well, his association with the Nazi Party. Oh, didn’t know about that? Yes, that was a thing that happened. But, to fully grasp this concept, we need some background information.
Hans Asperger, a pioneer of autism, was an Austrian physician active during World War II. In 1938 he published a paper diagnosing children as “autistic psychopaths”. The diagnosis of these children later became AS, named after the doctor himself (by Lorna Wing when she reviewed his work). Looking at historical records, Asperger is often depicted as someone who was against the National Socialism. Historical records have shown that his role was more ambivalent than we are led to believe. He was well trusted and supported by his Nazi colleagues and the Nazi Party. He benefited from the ideologies of the Nazi Party, such as furthering and solidifying his career at the expense of his Jewish colleagues and friends. He contributed and collaborated with the regime during his tenor as a physician. Evidence suggest that he agreed with some of the ideologies of the Nazi Party, but not as much as some of his more vocal colleagues. Asperger’s involvement in the Nazi Party is undeniable. But, we cannot say without any reasonable doubt, that he was a Nazi and fully supported the party as other well-known Nazis3.
If you want some more insight into this issue, I will post a link to the journal where I got this information from below. This is a rather important issue that goes beyond my scope and understanding. But I thought it was worth bringing up. My summary above was my viewpoint of the matter, if you want to learn more, I encourage you to read the article, although it’s a bit of a doozie.
Okay, so, where do we go from here? While no actual evidence supports that Asperger was a Nazi, evidence does suggest that he benefited from their actions. So, the question remains: should we change the name of AS to something else because the disorder’s name sake was complicit in Nazi crimes? Should we erase the name because the namesake was “bad”? I think the answer is no. And again, I do not think I have any say in this matter. I’m not one for dealing with political issues, mostly because my viewpoint is very rigid and unyielding. But something like this, I think should be discussed if just a little. This is very much a gray area topic. But I believe that changing a name because of the past is a terrible idea. You are erasing history. And erasing history is never a good idea. You may not agree with the past; you may not like the past; you must, however, acknowledge the past. Everyone today stands on the shoulders of giants. We are all a product of our time. Our actions, thoughts, feelings, and motives are affected by our time and environment. These impacts may change over time. They may become obsolete; they may become improved. But removing them erases them from the record. We are who we are because of our past. Without our past, there is no future. The past should never be removed. It should always be acknowledged. We can become better because of our past. Removing it removes any chances we have of becoming better. If we want to be a better person, no, a better species, we must acknowledge the past. We must stop burying the past because we don’t like it. We must learn from it, and move on. Only then, can we truly grasp the future as better than we once were.
Now, I will be the first to admit that I am a very flawed individual. I am almost certain that I will contradict myself in the future on this very issue. I have done it before, and I will unfortunately do it again. I am very much a fan of no change. I hate change. I never want to change. Ever. That has a definite impact on the way I see the world. But still, I hope this at least sparked some discussion. Maybe you agree with me, maybe you disagree with me. If we do not talk about this, understanding can never be had.
Time to wrap up.
In summary, AS is a type of high-functioning ASD. Many of the traits associated with ASD can be associated with AS such as restricted interests, and impaired social function. Individuals with AS may have trouble describing their emotions and not really understand other people’s viewpoints. They have many good strengths such as good memory and application for specific topics. Too long didn’t hear: Aspies are just higher functioning ASD individuals.
One of the reasons for this podcast is to spread awareness of the difficulties of being on the spectrum, and me trying to connect with other people who may have similar experiences. The other part is my life-long ambition of spreading and sharing information. I have three links to three very short books all about ASD and AS. These short books are beautiful illustrated with animals, and it discusses what it’s like to be on the spectrum. I would suggest looking into them. Purchase them if you want to spend the money, but I would recommend checking them out in a library or reading them online if you are able. There is a lot of information about AS and ASD out there, so these books, and hopefully this episode, brought a little more understanding to it.
Next time on Autism and Education, Science and Me will be the Herrera Case Study. We will dive into my traits and quirks. This should be fun. Look forward to it.
Thanks for listening. Hopefully next episode will not be as late, but one can never tell when one deals with education. This episode was a little personal, but insightful because it taught me a little bit more about the inner workings of not only my mind, but others like me as well. As much as I hate reflecting, more on that next episode, this was helpful and it helped me grow just a little. I hope to see you next class!
1. Autism Speaks. (2005). What is Asperger syndrome? Autism Speaks. Retrieved December
27, 2021, from https://www.autismspeaks.org/types-autism-what-asperger-syndrome
2. Brewer, R. L. (2020, June 1). Empathy vs. sympathy vs. apathy (grammar rules). Writer's
Digest. Retrieved January 1, 2022, from
https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/empathy-vs-sympathy-vs-apathy-grammar-rules
3. Czech H. (2018). Hans Asperger, National Socialism, and "race hygiene" in Nazi-era
Vienna. Molecular autism, 9, 29. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-018-0208-6
4. Gilmore, H., MSW, BCBA. (2019, November 16). Levels of Autism: Understanding the
Different Types of ASD. Retrieved December 30, 2020, from
5. Juan, S. (2006). Asperger's Disorder: When you are Robbed of Empathy. In The odd brain:
mysteries of our weird & wonderful brains explained (pp. 9–15). New York: MJF Books.
6. National Institute of Mental Health. (2018, March). Autism Spectrum Disorder. Retrieved
April 11, 2020, from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/autism-spectrum-disorders-asd/index.shtml
7. Poquérusse, J., Pastore, L., Dellantonio, S., & Esposito, G. (2018). Alexithymia and Autism
Spectrum Disorder: A Complex Relationship. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 1196.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01196
8. Wing L. (1981). Asperger's syndrome: a clinical account. Psychological medicine, 11(1),