Friday, August 13, 2010

What's in a name?

Our "charter," the beginning of normals' understanding us, was when AS was added to the psychology bible, the diagnostic manual (DSM) in 1994; recently there was some controversy when in its latest revision we were downgraded to a sub-group of autism. Oh, great. Now even more people will think we all act like the Rain Man.

Also, although I'm forever grateful to the late Dr. Asperger, he accidentally saddled us with a name easy to make fun of in English! (Ass Burger.) Why couldn't someone named Huxley or Maxpower have discovered this syndrome?

Among ourselves, "Aspie" seems the cutesy choice.

I've been using "neurodiverse" when I want to avoid the Rain Man stereotype.

Lately as more normals have found out about AS, another, nastier word is becoming hip, "spergy." Eew.

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