Quotes About Autism (and everything that includes)

• Prof Michael Fitzgerald, Henry Marsh Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Trinity College Dublin, and the author of The Genesis of Artistic Creativity: Asperger’s Syndrome and the Arts, speaks about people with Asperger’s Syndrome. In his book, he has this to say about Asperger artists:

Persons with the syndrome are often workaholics, highly persistent, content with their own company and solitary artistic occupations; they focus on detail with massive curiosity and total immersion; they are novelty-seekers in terms of their art, with massive imagination in their specialised spheres. They are also far less influenced by previous or contemporary artists in their work than are ‘neurotypicals’. It appears that the autistic artist, because of his or her rather diffuse identity and diffuse psychological boundaries, has the capacity to do what the artist George Bruce described as being necessary for art: ‘One must not just depict the objects, one must penetrate them, and one must oneself become the object’.”

• Morton Gernsbacher, parent of an autistic child, says:

” … research demonstrates that autistic traits are distributed into the non-autistic population; some people have more of them, some have fewer. History suggests that many individuals whom we would today diagnose as autistic – some severely so – contributed profoundly to our art, our math, our science, and our literature. “

• Frank Klein, on the difference between low functioning autism and high functioning autism; in the article, “But my Kid is Low-Functioning . . . You’re Not . . . What You Wrote Does Not Apply!”

Autism itself is not the enemy… the barriers to development that are included with autism are the enemy. The retardation that springs from a lack of development is the enemy. The sensory problems that are often themselves the barriers are the enemy. These things are not part of who the child is… they are barriers to who the child is meant to be, according to the developmental blueprint. Work with the child’s strengths to overcome the weaknesses, and work within the autism, not against it, to overcome the developmental barriers. You do not have to wipe all of us out (“cure autism”) to solve the problems that the low-functioning autistics face. As I see it, autistics are another kind of person, almost like another species, that has an unfortunately high rate of sensory dysfunction and resultant mental retardation in its children. You do not have to get rid of the whole group (again, by that, I mean curing autism) to get rid of the retardation that is all too common among my kind. That would be like trying to get rid of sickle-cell anemia by “curing” blackness (eliminating blacks). We have too much to offer society for that to be allowed to happen… if we are helped to develop as much as possible. I think that is a great and wonderful goal, and I hope you will agree.”

• Larry Arnold has this to say in regards to his own autism:

“I didn’t get where I am today by not being autistic.”

• Trisha Van Berkel says:

“Autism is not a puzzle, nor a disease. Autism is a challange [sic], but certainly not a devistating [sic] one.

Autism is about having a pure heart and being very sensitive… It is about finding a way to survive in an overwhelming, confusing world… It is about developing differently, in a different pace and with different leaps.

Autistic beings develop and bloom if their spirits, talents and self-esteem are not destroyed by bullies, prejudice, ‘doggie-training’, and being forced to be ‘normal’.”

• Jim Sinclair says this in “Don’t Mourn For Us:”

This is what we know, when you tell us of your fondest hopes and dreams for us: that your greatest wish is that one day we will cease to be, and strangers you can love will move in behind our faces.

• BTW, this one by Jim Sinclair reminds me of the line from the movie Batman Begins, where Ducard says this to Bruce Wayne:

But I know the rage that drives you. That impossible anger strangling the grief, until the memory of your loved one is just… poison in your veins. And one day, you catch yourself wishing the person you loved had never existed so you’d be spared your pain.

• mommy~dearest at The Quirk Factor: Resistance Is Futile, says this:

Autism (with a capital “A”) to me, says that I accept my child wholly. I celebrate his differences and his quirky-ness. I advocate diversity. I try to empower him. I am proud of his successes, no matter how small they seem. I hope he holds onto the compassion he has in his heart into adulthood. I do not think he needs “fixing”. I am proud that he is my son, and sometimes I am humbled by that very same thought.

• Parrish S. Knight has this to say:

Autism is not something I have. It is integral to who I am. Eliminate the autism, and you eliminate me. When you say you want a cure, you are saying I should be put to death. Think about it.

• According to my (lastcrazyhorn’s) main music therapy professor:

Empathy is not defined as feeling the same as another (as she pointed out, that’s codependency), but rather the ability to hear what another is saying and to tell them that you heard.

• Kathleen Seidel says:

Retrospective consideration of the lives of exceptional human beings offers credible evidence that the autistic distinction has persisted throughout history, and has been a valuable element of human culture. Genetic research indicates that at least twenty different genes can signal a predisposition to autistic development; autism is pervasively embedded in the deep structure of humanity. Psychological research indicates that autistic characteristics constitute an identifiable pattern of traits that are present in varying degrees throughout our entire species.

Autism is as much a part of humanity as is the capacity to dream.

• Awalkabout has this to say about autism (and her children):
  

Autism means your children approach our world differently. We just need to learn to interface through therapy, play, school, medical interventions, depending on the child’s needs. Give them the tools they need so they can communicate and understand; but I’m not one of those who insist on a cure. Our children have various gifts and instincts that might well be changed if they no longer had autism—I don’t want to lose those.

• Joell said this:
  

Don’t underestimate persons with autism, try to understand.

• Tony Attwood said this:
  

Asperger’s syndrome has probably been an important and valuable characteristic of our species throughout evolution.

• Dr. Winnie Dunn said this:

Someone with Asperger’s really is like you, just more extreme.

• “Lines in the Sand” – from House M.D.:

Cameron: Is it so wrong for them to want to have a normal child? It’s normal to want to be normal.

House: Spoken like a true circle queen. See, skinny socially privileged white people get to draw this neat little circle, and everyone inside the circle is normal, anyone outside the circle should be beaten, broken and reset so they can be brought into the circle. Failing that, they should be institutionalized or worse, pitied.

• Stephen at Gifted Gear Reviews, says this:
  

“Appropriate treatment” is not possible unless and until educators adopt a policy of unfailing respect for the individual. Progress is more important than a cure. Acceptance of difference is more important than achieving normalcy. Tolerance is not good enough because it demands change or at least movement toward an external norm.

I deserve acceptance and respect as I am.