Star Trek, Vulcans and Autism in the real world

[kenaij]

Now before anyone get any ideas. I`m not going to claim Vulcans are autistic. They are Vulcans. But a couple years back the newer Star Wars movies got me to start watching the original series, TNG, Voyager and not Enterprise. And eversince I started looking into autism I started to notice something. Vulcans are very different in their general being. The emotional part is what is talked about most. But also their social interactions. They often don`t seem to understand the humans. Humans in StarTrek generally behave NT.
In a lot of episodes a Vulcan character is the centre of attention. But what is curious is they only seem to be praised by their captain or human character when they seem to behave humanlike. But rarely, if ever, because of acting Vulcan. Basically the only times being Vulcan is beneficial to them is when it comes to physiology. But never because of them ACTING/BEHAVING Vulcan.
I feel that there is a very obvious relation where Autistic people rarely get praised for their autistic traits but rather when they act NT. That is also why I often relate most to the Vulcan main character. Not because they are the same as me. But because of how the people around them act towards them. They are willing to take 'advantage' of their Vulcan skills when they are required. But only praise them for acting 'human'.

PS: I feel Janeway acted like I discripe the least of the captains, but I might just remember that wrong.

 

[Raggamuffin]

I find it interesting in the episodes where the vulcan characters lose the ability to control their emotions - as they tend to go into full meltdown or megalomaniac mode.

Enterprise highlighted the novelty of a vulcan crew member quite well. But also, I found T'Pols gradual integration of her emotional side to be quite intriguing. Tuvok was awesome in this scene where he feels his emotions, so creepy:

Then there was the episode where Tuvix was created. That touched upon some very interesting ideas.

Ed

 

[kenaij]

I love that scene with Tuvok. Tuvok unmasked
But I guess the control of their emotions could be descriped as masking their emotions. Hiding their true selves away. The utter shock of the other characters of how he behaves when his 'masks' are down (or in this case his control over his emotions) is very interesting.
If we leave alone the fact he wants to kill someone, for a lot of autistic people their way of thinking about things is very different from NT's. And when we try to explain it to them they simply cannot comprehend what we mean. Or their social structural limitations do not allow them to express it.
Many NT's would be shocked aswell when a lot of the high masking autistic people would drop their masks completely.

I like T'Pol aswell. And indeed her development is very well done over de seasons. Since back then the Vulcan`s were not really used to adapting to human behaviour. And she learned to integrade with people who were very much not like her very well.

 

[Neonatal RRT]

I can't help but to think that Gene Roddenberry modeled the Vulcans after some autistic-like traits, perhaps people he knew, personally. I think that's why many of us can identify with them.

 

[kenaij]

I can't help but to think that Gene Roddenberry modeled the Vulcans after some autistic-like traits, perhaps people he knew, personally. I think that's why many of us can identify with them.

Or at least how they were perceived to be at the time. Being non emotional. While we now know this is simply not true. People just thought this was the case because of how it was tested. Since we have just as many emotions (if not more as some) compared to NT's.
Like I said. For me it is not so much that I think I act, think and do the same as a Vulcan. It is more so the fact how people act towards them that feels identical. And how the Vulcan's are expected to adjust to the human ship. Even though there are other aliens onboard who are not human either, they are often more alike in many ways.

 

[MC1Rcat]

I grew up with the original Star Trek on tv at my grandma's house, and always had a crush on Spock. I later realized as an adult that I also identified with him because I am autistic. I think the Vulcans may have been inspired by people with ASD, there are a LOT of similarities in the way both socialize, think and the way they are treated by others. Now I am gonna have to go google Roddenberry to see if there is any connection with ASD out there.

 

[MC1Rcat]

Autism Research Institute

Did you know? Gene Roddenberry correspondences with Dr. Bernard Rimland were mentioned in the book titled “Star Trek Creator: The Authorized Biography of Gene Roddenberry,’ written by David Alexander.

www.facebook.com

This is a link that suggests Gene Roddenberry may have done some research on Autism.

There is a lot of speculation on the internet that Roddenberry may have been Autistic himself, but I did not see any concrete evidence for it.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

I never thought that controlling my emotions was masking. I have lost control before, but I always thought that emotional control was ethical and so desired.

 

[kenaij]

I never thought that controlling my emotions was masking. I have lost control before, but I always thought that emotional control was ethical and so desired.

If you are reacting to what I was saying. I do not mean masking (autism) and controlling (vulcans) is the exact same thing. Just to compare the two.

 

[Tom]

Interesting point, and I think there is a lot of truth to it.

I always liked the vulcans. Not when they acted more human, but for their interesting vulcan traits. I found a lot to admire in it. One thing being their predictabilty and reliability. You can pretty much count on them not to get upset, lose their minds, etc. I wonder if that had anything to do with me being on the spectrum. I think probably so.

 

[MildredHubble]

In star trek lore, the Vulcan race were, in their history, brutal and violent. I can't remember the name of the Vulcan philosopher that preached the way of logic but they were an almost Messiah like figure in Vulcan culture. I'm sure the name is easily googlable

Vulcans are taught from early childhood to follow the path of logic and suppress their emotions. So in a way it's quite similar to ASD in that they are masking. But it's kinda the inverse of ASD I think.

I always liked Spock in the original series. I felt like I could very much identify with him. But when the Next Generation came out, I felt a lot more connection to Commander Data. I think his character is a better analogue to people on the spectrum personally. In his case he is trying to figure out and understand how to blend in with his human friends, even if he can't appreciate why.

Data also has a habit of info dumping! This was the first thing I noticed that Data did that I did myself. I very much empathised with him when people interrupted him for him being too verbose.

I'm absolutely over the moon that they brought Data back in Picard S3

 

[kenaij]

In star trek lore, the Vulcan race were, in their history, brutal and violent. I can't remember the name of the Vulcan philosopher that preached the way of logic but they were an almost Messiah like figure in Vulcan culture. I'm sure the name is easily googlable

Vulcans are taught from early childhood to follow the path of logic and suppress their emotions. So in a way it's quite similar to ASD in that they are masking. But it's kinda the inverse of ASD I think.

I always liked Spock in the original series. I felt like I could very much identify with him. But when the Next Generation came out, I felt a lot more connection to Commander Data. I think his character is a better analogue to people on the spectrum personally. In his case he is trying to figure out and understand how to blend in with his human friends, even if he can't appreciate why.

Data also has a habit of info dumping! This was the first thing I noticed that Data did that I did myself. I very much empathised with him when people interrupted him for him being too verbose.

I'm absolutely over the moon that they brought Data back in Picard S3

That is a very good point actually. I also really liked Data. In the ways of being more like people you might be right. My observation was more so about how people act towards Vulcans. When they praise the. How they use them. But still expect them to understand human ways and act like humans. While their core is completely different.

 

[MildredHubble]

That is a very good point actually. I also really liked Data. In the ways of being more like people you might be right. My observation was more so about how people act towards Vulcans. When they praise the. How they use them. But still expect them to understand human ways and act like humans. While their core is completely different.

There is definitely a similarity in the way Vulcans are often teased for displaying their emotions or more often, their lack of emotional display, but at the same time their Vulcan abilities are often exploited. It was also similar with Data, they would ask him a question, like "How long before the disaster occurs?" and he would say something like "Based on my calculations, the disaster will occur in 3 days, 12 hours, 6 minutes and..." before getting interrupted by someone saying "THANK YOU COMMANDER DATA, THAT WILL BE ALL!".

Of course it's for dramatic reasons and exposition to tell new viewers what Data's schtick is, but I definitely could relate very much to that sort of thing.

When someone asks me a question I tend not to do things like question the person's motives and tend to take it at face value.

It's like when a doctor asks me "How can I help?" I think they are seeking information on what's wrong and how I think they can intervene. When really I've discovered what they are really asking is "Why are you here and how can I most easily and quickly persuade you to leave?"

I think the "between the lines" read of say Spock and Doctor McCoy's banter was that Dr McCoy genuinely respected Spock and saw him as his opposite counterpart to his more emotional personality. They both teased eachother in their own way. Neither was really represented as better than the other. They were equal.

 

[VictorR]

Vulcan is a real life town with about 2000 people vulcans.

Vulcan, Alberta - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[kenaij]

There is definitely a similarity in the way Vulcans are often teased for displaying their emotions or more often, their lack of emotional display, but at the same time their Vulcan abilities are often exploited. It was also similar with Data, they would ask him a question, like "How long before the disaster occurs?" and he would say something like "Based on my calculations, the disaster will occur in 3 days, 12 hours, 6 minutes and..." before getting interrupted by someone saying "THANK YOU COMMANDER DATA, THAT WILL BE ALL!".

Of course it's for dramatic reasons and exposition to tell new viewers what Data's schtick is, but I definitely could relate very much to that sort of thing.

When someone asks me a question I tend not to do things like question the person's motives and tend to take it at face value.

It's like when a doctor asks me "How can I help?" I think they are seeking information on what's wrong and how I think they can intervene. When really I've discovered what they are really asking is "Why are you here and how can I most easily and quickly persuade you to leave?"

I think the "between the lines" read of say Spock and Doctor McCoy's banter was that Dr McCoy genuinely respected Spock and saw him as his opposite counterpart to his more emotional personality. They both teased eachother in their own way. Neither was really represented as better than the other. They were equal.

I tend to try to give an answer to the full question aswell. Which is often not what people like to hear. A couple years back I was really into fitness and got pretty deep into the data and research. When people asked me questions about it. Especially if they asked me of something was right my answer would always be along the lines of. "Yes, but........". The never wanted to hear the but. Eventhou the 'but' part was way more important than the yes or no answer. That was always really infuriating.
Same with my wife and daughter. Both are NT (as far as I know) and they always find my answers to long and to detailed. Especially my daughter. When I go deeper than 1 sentence she zones out.
A couple days ago my daughter said she also wanted autism. Not knowing what it really meant. So my wife told her she doesnt and explained about 1 very small aspect of autistic 'struggles'. My daughter accepted that answer. And I was just sitting there waiting for the rest of the reasons I could think of. (Eventhou I would not want to be not autistic. Because it makes me who I am.)