Absence of this larger picture would seem to account for autistic folks’ difficulties in doing this.

If the approach is to construct the picture each time, then inconsistencies between individual pieces become problematic instead of just nuances within a still-consistent preexisting picture. Absence of presumption about shared knowledge would also lead to unnecessary qualification of statements, as when I say to my wife Dove, “Peter - you know, my nephew” when she knows he is the only Peter I know.

On the other hand, if the default “picture” is of trains, or scifi, or whatever subject-of-fixation, then everything appears to relate to that or else is just discarded because it doesn’t. If this is the case, there may be more comprehension than is apparent; the stuff is understood but just isn’t interesting enough to comment on or otherwise respond to.

Okay, this certainly goes with the preceding quote. Maybe the “larger picture” is “Things As They Are” - an entire world view rather than the temporary, situational mockup which I find myself using. My suspicion is that the inability to come up with a static, global “larger picture” offers a lot of freedom instead: compare the letting go of (whatever) in 12-step programs, and the manifold freedoms/options/visions which come into being as a result.

Last revised: June 17, 2007
(c)2007 Dave Spicer
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