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What to call ourselves?

V

Vince

Well-Known Member
It occurred to me that since the DSM5 was updated to merge "Asperger's" into ASD, to use the term Aspie will eventually become confusing and obsolete.

Should we adopt a more current term so youngsters or more recent diagnosees can more easily carry the torch? or would it just muddy the waters and make things more confusing?

How about "autie" or something like "ottie". Of course the former would require a bit less explaining, but maybe more explaining would be a good thing?

Is this a crappy idea? I'm sure this is probably flawed for some reason, but I'm just wingin' it here. The thought just popped into my head today and I can't get it out. Duh.
That is all.
 
I think it's so well established now it would muddy the waters as you say.

How many of us say we will "do the hoovering" even though our vacuum cleaner may be an Electrolux, a Dyson or any number of different makes?
 
Ottie makes me think of baby otters.
upload_2018-12-16_11-33-37.png
 
I use it when there is a need to drive home the point that I'm high functioning. But I mostly use the word au, and prefer it, because it's all inclusive.
 
Autistamatic said:
I think it's so well established now it would muddy the waters as you say.

How many of us say we will "do the hoovering" even though our vacuum cleaner may be an Electrolux, a Dyson or any number of different makes?
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Hoovering? lol Here, we just vacuum. See, I love these new phrases - new to me, that is.
 
I actually think people are a little more familiar with aspergers than they are high functioning autism. Where with aspergers, the general public think 'smart with quirks' while with functioning autism the still think "Rainman". When it comes to what I say on this forum, not sure you noticed but I say on the spectrum a lot because that covers us all and I like the sound of it. :)
 
Given how much time has elapsed since the changes of the DSM-V, I don't think it's a big concern.

In terms of this place being a community, what remains most important to me is our common ability to understand each other on a level which remains either incredibly difficult for NTs, or outright impossible.

To me that will always be the most gratifying thing I can encounter here. That others on the spectrum not only understand my plight living with autism, but that in terms of various traits and behaviors, they also share them.

Whatever we choose to call who and what we are. ;)
 
You can call me anything you want as long as it's clean :D

Seriously though, I'm so over some people who think anyone who isn't in perfect mental health is clearly the R word (Retarded), these people are uneducated plebs who need to shut up... Same with people who think wrestling fans are all gay because they mistakenly think wrestling is all sweaty men in short tights hugging each other, completely wrong on several levels IMO.
 
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Those who create the DSM5 were planning to categorize women who love to shop into Compulsive Shopper Disorder so it could be drugged and profited from.
Ya... sounds like a joke right? this isn't a joke. They are / were seriously considering it. ("Why are we allowing them to spend on material goods when they could be spending on our drugs?")

I don't recognize those who create the DSM as a morally intelligent authority so will continue to call us aspie.

You can call us whatever you like. I'm sure when we see autie, people here will understand what that means.

Case and point
http://cdn.playbuzz.com/cdn/1d103ff...1980a-a42d-4782-a9d2-c97708e48914_560_420.jpg
 
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Vince said:
It occurred to me that since the DSM5 was updated to merge "Asperger's" into ASD, to use the term Aspie will eventually become confusing and obsolete.

Should we adopt a more current term so youngsters or more recent diagnosees can more easily carry the torch? or would it just muddy the waters and make things more confusing?

How about "autie" or something like "ottie". Of course the former would require a bit less explaining, but maybe more explaining would be a good thing?

Is this a crappy idea? I'm sure this is probably flawed for some reason, but I'm just wingin' it here. The thought just popped into my head today and I can't get it out. Duh.
That is all.
Click to expand...
As I dug deeper into my past, I would have never made the aspie cut while it was still a thing in the USA, so I will stick with autie as it fits me best.

It really doesn't matter what you call yourself in the bigger picture, it won't change who you are.
In the end, it all boils down to what you think fits you best too ;)
 
Vince said:
It occurred to me that since the DSM5 was updated to merge "Asperger's" into ASD, to use the term Aspie will eventually become confusing and obsolete.

Should we adopt a more current term so youngsters or more recent diagnosees can more easily carry the torch? or would it just muddy the waters and make things more confusing?
Click to expand...

There is far too much change for change's sake in the world already, for my taste at least. Aspie seems like a reasonable and well established term. I don't see any need to mess with it.
 
I've thought to always have understood the rationale of this as a spectrum of autism. Whether one agrees or not with the basic concept.

However that said, I do sometimes wonder if the term "Asperger's Syndrome" would still be around had Dr. Hans Asperger not been associated with the Third Reich.

Not just in terms of "political correctness", but with revisions of the interpretation of historical events and the various personalities who participated in this regime. In essence the continuing revision of historical events involving personalities of the former Third Reich in this particular society appear more often than not to be far less forgiving with the passage of time.

Though what history learned about Albert Speer long after his death is considerably more known than what is known about Hans Asperger. Yet did Asperger simply get caught in Speer's "historical wake"? Maybe.
 
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As I have so far understood, Hans Asperger was an unwilling tool of the Nazis rather than one of them or a collaborator, though I'm ready to be corrected.
I have also have Recurrent Reactive Arthritis which was, until a few years ago, called "Reiter's Syndrome". Hans Reiter WAS a Nazi who also worked on germ warfare experiments. He was tried at Nuremberg but allowed to continue working, thought to be because of his biological warfare experience.
Hans Reiter was a legally acknowledged Nazi war criminal who was reputedly embraced by the West because they wanted his weapons expertise which is now banned under the Geneva Convention. Hans Asperger is a much less cut and dried case at least according to history.
 
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Autistamatic said:
As I have so far understood, Hans Asperger was an unwilling tool of the Nazis rather than one of them or a collaborator, though I'm ready to be corrected.
Click to expand...

I don't think we'll ever really know, apart from the millions of Germans who joined the party as a matter of perceived necessity over political zeal. Though to carry out the research he was doing, he certainly would have come under some degree of scrutiny in the process. In a profession where more participants became party members than all others.

Given the nature of the Nazis' T-4 euthanasia program, you have to wonder how many autistic people in German custody may have been murdered under a nebulous premise of "neurological disorders".

Which one would think might have elevated the significance of Dr. Asperger's research at the time, for better or worse. Though this in itself reflects yet another mystery. How he managed to deal with such scrutiny, being able to conduct his research without much incident to the end of the war and beyond. Or did he simply manage somehow to conduct such research under the radar of the Nazi state? Seems unlikely, though I suppose it's possible. He certainly didn't have the capital to pay off the bureaucracy as did Oskar Schindler.

Bottom line with Dr. Asperger, there are more questions than answers. Though we know it's also human nature to attack the unknown. :oops:
 
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Language tends to have a life of its own. I don't believe it is the kind of thing one can control.
 
I had a conversation about mental conditions with a couple NT friends today. They completely understood the term Asperger’s Syndrome because they are familiar with it. Until further notice I am going to continue referring to myself as an aspie.
 
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