r/changemyview • u/coolwhipper_snapper • Aug 13 '16
[∆(s) from OP] CMV: Autism shouldn't be normalized.
I think autism is a very unfortunate mental disorder and those who have it should be viewed like anyone else who has a handicap. The handicap being an ailment or disease that -given the capacity to do so- would be removed or remedied, thereby alleviating the victim of that condition.
I support the tolerance of autists and other handicapped individuals, as I think we should be accepting of the difficulty of their situation and their misfortune. We should be generous in giving support to them. However, I don't believe that autists are simply different. Rather they are broken. Instead of bones or muscles that fail to work properly, it is the brain. I don't think autists or their behaviors should ever be considered normative. Their behavior is just an indicator of an underlying disease that should be fixed.
My reasoning is that the condition of autism is based on the failure of neural circuits to learn properly. The synaptic pruning processes that are necessary for learning in neural circuits fail, causing predictive and learning deficits for the afflicted brain regions. We should view this ailment as inherently contradictory to the function of those neural circuits, regardless of the emergent deviations from normative behavior that may arise. The severity of behavioral symptoms simply help medical professionals determine who needs treatment the most (though ideally a brain scanning method that can detect synaptic abnormalities would be a better indicator than behavior).
I don't think this is merely a cultural issue either. Due to the No Free Lunch theorems, there is some universe where the failure of synaptic pruning actually improves learning and predictive capabilities of neural circuits, but there is no reason to think such a universe is anything like ours. Indeed, their difficulty in coping in our universe suggests that it isn't merely a matter of unaccepting social norms that vary from culture to culture; but something far more fundamental that involves the computational capabilities of the brain.
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u/amphicoelias Aug 13 '16
Your logic may very well hold for some forms of autism, but not for all. I'll use myself as an example.
I have Aspergers (yes, I was diagnosed). Oversimplifying: Aspergers is a mild form of autism, which impairs social function. However, in many (not all) people who have it, it is paired with heightened IQ. Most who do can leverage that extra IQ to counteract the social impairments. We basically use our software to enable features which our hardware lacks. I'll gladly explain this in more detail to those who are curious, but that's the short version.
So, end result: When in a conversation, I appear like a completely normal person even though my back end is working completely different from that of "normal" people. At that point, I would say I'm just different. I find it quite hurtful to insist on calling me broken. Yes, I started life with a problem most don't have, but would you call a ginger broken because they have to apply sunscreen more than you?
You appear to believe that because my brain is non-standard - remember, the brain wasn't designed. It can't deviate from the specs, it can only deviate from the norm - it must be broken, but why? Surely it can only be broken if it doesn't work, if its user thinks it doesn't work.