Ok, now I have started to obsess a bit about Asperger’s again after reading a thread on FB – Dangerous place that.
https://www.flashback.info/showthread.php?t=598915&page=127
Well it all started with a question I have to answer for the English class I am taking on distance.
Here’s what I have so far:
Why is the detective genre particularly fitting for dealing with experiences within the context of Asperger’s syndrome?
My theory is that Sherlock Holmes himself has Asperger’s. A high-functional version but Asperger’s none the less. I have read them all (except for one story which I can’t seem to get hold of) I have picked up a large number of Asperger traits in Mr. Holmes. Dr Watson is Holmes’ help to cope with many social situations, Holmes’ also uses drugs to shut his brain up. (I’m not the only one with this idea –see Magnas idea and Harriets list).
This is why detective fiction, especially the style used within the books about Sherlock Holmes, fit persons diagnosed with Asperger (henceforth, aspie/s/) well. They can relate to his way of thinking, his ruthless sense of detail and his skill of noticing things which surpass others.
Not only can they relate, they can as Gilbert puts it (page 243-244) use the fictional character to make sense of their own lives. They can also, with support in the fiction, change their own lives, develop and mature in a way impossible by other means. It can be related to the training of social skills, because when you are a detective you have to talk to strangers (as Christopher does when asking the neighbours about information on Wellington’s murder). It can also draw upon behavioural modification since you cannot be exactly the same as you were in order to solve a mystery.
The thing is with the thread on the Flashback forum I feel very ”at home” in many of the symtoms described, especially with the women ones (strange that.. )
My mother have always thought I had Asperger’s or at least some of it but I have never been officially checked out.
Perhaps its worth getting it done,
What are the benefits of a diagnosis? If any?
Some people who have been diagnosed say that it makes them feel better about being so different.
As if its more OK to be different with an official label on it.
I mean it’s not like you wear a headband or anything that screams ”I’m a diagnosed aspie – that’s why I’m odd”.
Other (not all of course, but some) people will still think you’re a freak, just a labeled freak.
I guess the difference can be, as an old pink Floyd Sound Technician Robison puts it; ”I have moved from being weird to being eccentric. And let me tell you, it’s a lot better to be eccentric.”
I dont know. I think I’ll just go to bed for now … Tomorrow I’ll find something else to obsess about.
AND finish my english essay. and go to a lecture, and study business economy… Hmm no time to obsess there!…