This could be easier for autistic folks who can see themselves as objects...

Here, the absence of the earlier-mentioned “internal feedback mechanism” could be an attribute. One’s proxy could be seen as equivalent to the other actors, but with no special handling necessary to “get one’s ego out of the way”.

Which brings up what may be the greatest irony in discussing autism: the term itself is derived from “autos”, or self. We’re supposed to be massively self-centered, which implies huge egos. But I’m not so sure that’s what’s going on. It may look that way, but from the inside it doesn’t seem so clear-cut.

What a tool 12-step programs seem to be for this! One’s own social life is precisely what is to be studied, then transformed, through the 12-step process. And in discussing the process, “I statements” are encouraged, wherein folks speak of their own experiences and insights. Others can then, without feeling preached to or “shoulded”, make connections with their experiences and awarenesses.

Autism could facilitate a more-detached view of one’s own life experience, which could perhaps aid the process. How paradoxical that we who are said to be extremely self-absorbed may be more easily able to examine ourselves (our selves).

Last revised: June 22, 2007
(c)2007 Dave Spicer
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