Any use or reproduction of the explanations of this page (which dates from February 2018), must mention the source, with a link to Autistan.org
Explanations about autism, according to the Diplomatic Organization of Autistan
You want to understand autism, but everything you have read or heard so far seems unclear, contradictory, and unsatisfactory.
We think that most of the people who will read our explanations on autism, on this page, will have the feeling to finally really understand the essential principles of autism, and to know better "how to think" to have realistic ideas and clear about autism, which is essential to better know how to do with us.
* E0 * PRELIMINARY AND NECESSARY REFLECTIONS
- Almost all attempts to "explain autism" are wrong, because they do not understand the profound nature of autism.
- This is because these attempts are based on a "non-autistic repository" that is perceived as "fair" and "valid".
- The best way to understand and explain autism is to use an autistic way of thinking, without being influenced by non-autistic theories and formats.
- Non-autistic people already perceive the absurd and dangerous nature of the current global social system, but they can not "get out of their boxes", their conventions and habits of thought, and they are trapped in a stronger illusion than themselves.
They sometimes perceive its illusory character, but they can not do anything about it because they are dragged into a sort of social whirlwind, and of "obligatory thoughts" (as for example the idea that it is "obligatory" to communicate and to be well adapted socially, and that in the contrary case, one has necessarily a psychological problem, which is an absurd idea, when one thinks about it a few moments). - The sensation of "officially valid general error" generates general malaise and "social psychosis", which leads to the fear of everything, the fear of the unknown, the automatic rejection of "different" people, the withdrawal into individualism, selfishness, materialism, comfort, the enjoyment of material pleasures and illusions, resulting in increasingly high demands for productivity, profitability, and "safety" standards, which guide public, in a way that disadvantages natural minorities (such as autistic people), and ultimately makes their lives more and more impossible.
- If one thinks in an "autistic" way, honestly, without considering the "social" beliefs and conventions, one understands very quickly that the non-autistic social system and the "socially acceptable ways of thinking" are wrong and in conflict with the natural laws of life.
- It is also understood that the autistic characteristics and qualities are quite valid and interesting, but that they are in conflict with the social system, which is itself in conflict with Nature and with "what should be done".
- If, and only if, we start from the premise that "normal", "socially acceptable" modes of thinking and functioning are very questionable, and often very problematic, then, only, we can start to be in a state of mind "compatible" with autism, and one can begin to understand.
- For this, we must forget all received ideas, we must go out of "social formatting" (which is particularly easy for an autistic).
- If you agree to try to think that way, in a "logical and honest" way, and to recognize the flaws and absurdities of the "non-autistic system", then you will read with interest our general explanations about autism, in the following points.
- This page of autistic explanations by autistics, "at the source", is a concrete example of achievement corresponding to the "goal" -G0500- ("Explain Autism") of our organization.
The information presented on this page is very basic, and it can be developed by means of various exchanges, communications and meetings.
* E1 * AUTISM
- Autism is neither a disease nor a set of "troubles".
- Autism is a natural human characteristic, characterized in particular by authenticity, truth, purity, coherence, harmony, rectitude, and resistance to alterations of these characteristics.
- Autistics have qualities that are specific to autism (and that are not "social qualities").
- Autism itself is a quality, since it resembles a form of self-protection and natural defense of the human against attacks, degradations, denatations and dangers resulting from most artificial social constructions (like social codes, conventions, systems of thought, material achievements …) that despise the original qualities of the human being, which are preserved among autists.
* E2 * THE "AUTISTIC DISORDERS"
- Autistic people do not feel the need or the obligation to communicate or to be adapted to a general social functioning which they perceive, instinctively, as incoherent and harmful.
- Non-autistic people believe that this adaptation is essential, and that it demonstrates good mental health.
- These people therefore believe that autistic maladjustment is necessarily a sign of mental disability.
- What is called "restricted interests" corresponds to the focus and richness abilities of autistic thought, and this is useful for their "particular way of life" to which they are entitled. But as these interests and passions are too unusual for non-autistic people, and they are not able to do the same, then they believe that this particularity is a "problem".
- In general, the thinking of non-autistic people makes them believe that everything that is not "normal", standard, "normal", in relation to their social group, is something " bad "and sign of a personal psychic problem. This explains why non-autistic people make, automatically, all possible efforts to be or appear appropriate and "normal" (since, unlike autists, they judge themselves in relation to others, who will condemn them if they seem "weird").
- Some "autistic disorders" are "disorders" only from the point of view of non-autistic people, but not from the point of view of autistics.
For us, these are not "troubles", but autistic characteristics that must be respected instead of being discouraged or mocked. - Some "autistic disorders" cause real difficulties that make life very complicated in the current social system (governed by norms, constant, complex and subtle social interactions, etc.).
These difficulties justify "learning", on the part of the autistic person, to know how to "survive" in this "artificial social system", totally inhospitable for a "natural being". - The suffering does not come from autism, nor from "autistic disorders", but from reactions of incomprehension and rejection by non-autistic people, unable to accept "unformatted" people.
- Suffering can also come from wrong, non-autistic thoughts and conceptions, which often have the effect of making the autistic feel guilty and inferior, which sometimes leads to an "obsession" (exaggerated and superfluous) to be adapted or to appear appropriate. .
- When an autistic person denies or hides his autistic characteristics, this can cause an "invisible handicap" that prevents non-autistic people from making adaptation efforts. This locks the autistic into a kind of "non-autistic role prison" (obligation to play a non-autistic role), which can lead to inner psychological conflicts that can lead to suicide, especially when the autistic person believes " that the system is right. "
- Some people with autism present typical "non-autistic" "disorders", which result in fact from bad adaptations to "non-autism", carried out in an autistic way (often with excess), without really being able to understand the "justifications" of these adaptations ( since, in any case, for the autistic way of thinking, they can not be justified).
* E3 * THE "COMORBIDITIES"
- The term "comorbidities" refers to diseases and health problems that are noticeably present in the autistic population.
- These problems also exist in people who are not autistic.
- These problems are not unique to autism, and are not part of autism.
- Even if one could show that some of these problems might result from autism, it would not be a sufficient reason to want to "suppress autism".
- It would certainly be helpful to find solutions for these problems, in general and without harming autism.
* E4 * HANDICAP
- If one uses the word "disability" in the usual sense of "deficiency", "default", "lack", "imperfection" inherent in the person, autism is not a "handicap" because there is nothing that proves that autism (as we define it above in point 1) would involve a "defect or an intrinsic error", on the contrary.
- We use the word "disability" in the general sense of "disadvantage" or "obstacle", and not in the sense of "disability", "defect" "," disability ", or with any other view that "normal" people are necessarily "superior".
- Autism itself is not a handicap, regardless of the ways in which the notion of "disability" is defined (as above), but "the lack of proper consideration of autism by the social system "(including by the family) inevitably causes many difficulties for the autistic, which prevents them from reaching the levels of quality of life and freedom enjoyed by the non-autistic people (whose social system defines and imposes rules which favor the majority and neglect minorities).
- This "lack of proper consideration of autism", when it meets an autistic person, causes difficult situations, painful, hostile, which disadvantage, exclude and penalize the autistic: one can thus say that this one is " socially handicapped "by the" deficiencies "of the general system.
- No disability should lead to feelings of shame or inferiority.
In the case of autism (whose lack of proper consideration leads to social disability), autistics should logically be happy to be "handicapped in relation to a social system that is itself defective, absurd and in obvious conflict. with the laws of Nature ". - In other words, there is nothing wrong with being unsuitable for a society that is itself unsuitable for life (life as it should be, without artifices and toxic illusions).
This corresponds to the phrase of the philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti: "It is not a sign of good (mental) health, that of being well adapted to a sick society". - It is very important to fully understand all this, to stop to consider autism in a negative and false way, and to diminish or eliminate some psychic sufferings (feelings of inferiority and "to have a problem") of those autistic who discover autism through the wrong prism of the usual (and official) non-autistic vision of autism.
- Understanding these things helps a lot in reaching the goal -G0300- of our Organization ("Dignity for Autists"), and of course it also helps for some of our other purposes, for example by bringing our interlocutors to a state of thought to understand autism properly, and, therefore, to make more appropriate, fair, and non-adverse decisions for autistic people.
- Of course we have problems, but these problems are not "disabilities due to autism", but "difficulties because of non-autism".
- When we begin to understand that even though we have a "problem" with the social system, we have no problem with the "natural referential", and that the social system has a real huge and serious problem of maladjustment to Nature, then we can begin to see life in a positive way, and we can begin to decide our life, being less influenced, deceived and victims of illusions and "Non-Autistic Disorders".
* E5 * "NON-AUTISTIC DISORDERS"
- The concept of "Non-Autistic Disorders", invented by Eric Lucas, was publicly presented by him for the first time in Almaty (KZ) on February 12, 2016.
(This concept is quite close to the concept of "neurotypical syndrome", but it is more accurate.) - This concept presents a deliberately provocative terminology, which aims to encourage non-autistic people to think about the flaws of systems and conventions that they consider "valid" and "just".
- But it is not just about provocation and seeking the restoration of a certain justice.
Indeed, when one begins to study the "Non-Autistic Disorders", one is really scared by their quantity and their gravity.
In comparison, the three or four small "disorders" of the autists, seem relatively insignificant. - This severity is one of the reasons that prevent non-autistic people from thinking honestly and courageously about the deficiencies of their "systems". This can make you dizzy, and cause a kind of blockage of thought.
- Another important thing that prevents most non-autistic people from thinking about it is their "lack of autism". Indeed, their thoughts are highly influenced and dependent on the systems and social conventions in which they live, and therefore they can hardly extract themselves to see things with the necessary distance.
- Seeing all this with distance does not require any effort for an autistic person. On the contrary, it is part of our nature and our qualities, and we are constantly obliged to note the internal aberrations specific to the multitudes of "social systems", which are all in conflict with each other (necessarily, since each system moves away truth and natural reality).
(The annoyances and frustrations we feel in seeing all this are examples of suffering that does not come from autism as a negative thing, as explained above). - It would be very long and tedious to present here the list of "Non-Autistic Disorders", and the explanations showing how these are the cause of the sufferings of the autistic, and on the other hand, these explanations are in progress. writing (by Eric Lucas) in a book that we hope will see the light of day this year.
- However, we can mention some important categories:
- Non-Autistic Disorders of Communication
- Non-Autistic Disorders of Socialization
- Non-Autistic Disorders of Limited Interests
- Non-Autistic Disorder of Misunderstanding of Autism
* E6 * NATURALITY, COHERENCE, SENSITIVITY, AND ATTACK
- The "attacks" can be called "neurological aggression" since everything is conveyed by the neurological system of perception, and treated by the brain.
- A distinction can be made between "sensory" (or "external") neurological aggression and "mental" (or "internal") neurological aggression.
- The attacks can be sensory; these are signals warning the person that something is inconsistent, problematic or dangerous in the physical environment. It is not a question of "great sensitivity to sounds, lights, smells, or touch". It is a question of great sensitivity to inconsistencies (which here are perceived at the sensory level).
- The attacks can be sensory and mental. Sensory disturbance causes a mental disturbance, usually related to the (more or less precise) consciousness of inconsistency, injustice, falsity, the fact that something is not correct (which is therefore "automatically rejected "by autistic thought").
- The attacks can be "mental": the autistic person will think of an aberration that she perceives, and this will provoke a disruption of her sense of coherence and harmony (what can often be called "justice" ); then, very quickly, the straightness and purity of her thought system will establish many mental connections corresponding to all the relationships she sees with the problem observed (these connections can go much further than in non-autistic people, whose thinking is limited to choosing among some pre-established paths, with "ready-made solutions", rapid and reassuring, socially decided and validated, for each known subject).
- If the autistic person focuses his thoughts on a disruption (and on the inconsistency and injustice of the situation), then there may be a kind of "chain reaction" or "resonance", such as a metal bell. In a non-autistic person, the problem will be quickly dispelled and forgotten, as if you hit on a plastic bell.
- If the autistic person tries to express himself or herself to demand the reduction or cessation of disturbances (which are almost always imposed by the social environment), it will not be understood, or it will not be believed.
- So, all the suffering (sensory and mental), aggravated by the frustration of the impossibility to be understood, and to be believed, and by the feeling of injustice and social incoherence, all this will eventually lead to an "autistic crisis" that nobody will understand (except the people who have read – and who understood – the explanations of this page).
- As you get older, the person will experience more and more similar painful experiences, which will never get solutions (since non-autistic people can not and / or do not want to make efforts to understand and to adapt sufficiently).
- And so, with each new attack, the thought of the person will make connections with all other previous attacks of similar type, and also with the thought that there are never solutions or efforts on the part of others, and all this will end up causing situations of suffering and despair, and often, crises, more and more severe, which can sometimes end in suicide.
- It is also to avoid falling into all this "gear" that many autistic people feel, instinctively, that it is important not to start getting closer to it all.
- This is one of the reasons why many autistic people remain "in their world", even though most of them can not explain these things, since all these "social reasonings" have no meaning, no value, and do not exist for them.
The following chapters, which are also very important, are not developed for the moment on this page.
Government authorities and national organizations wishing to know more can contact us.