Autism and the Complexity of Language
My research is in brain function, including investigating aspects pathologized as disorders and their connections to knowledge, beliefs, and behavior. As someone who is both autistic and bipolar, my personal experiences have allowed me to observe the intriguing dynamics and conflicts that arise between diverse cognitive styles and cultures.
Human beings are inherently social creatures and have evolved to function in groups. To maintain cohesion, societies develop standard accepted behaviors, perspectives, and communication styles. Consequently, individuals from foreign and minority cultures and those with atypical cognitive functioning frequently encounter conflicts within societies. Yet, for a society to flourish, it requires individuals with atypical ways of thinking, including inventors, artists, and intellectual visionaries. This dynamic creates an ongoing tension between societies and those who think differently, a topic I previously wrote about in my post titled "Neurodiversity, and the Human as Social Animal."
People with mental disorders, such as ADHD, dyslexia, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, often possess unique skills in certain areas or situations, alongside deficits in others. The autistic frequently excel in objective analysis, logic, data processing, pattern recognition, memory, and mathematics, thriving in technical and scientific areas. However, they often struggle with emotional empathy and conventional social intuition, often appearing eccentric and sometimes antisocial. The great physicists and mathematicians Isaac Newton and Paul Dirac, both believed to be autistic, were known for eccentricity and social awkwardness.
The autistic are known for their honesty, directness, and their propensity to speak their minds without reservation. They are the ones who point out that the emperor has no clothes. My late mother said I was unafraid to say out loud what others only think, and people have characterized me as brave for speaking up when few others would. While this honesty and openness are appreciated, this can also be perceived as bluntness or even rudeness, making the autistic simultaneously admired as truth-tellers and labeled as provocateurs and troublemakers.
Given their atypical emotional interpretations and a tendency to miss the subtleties of social interactions, the autistic require direct communication rather than implied messages. Though a Physics Nobel Prize winner described as a “human supercomputer” and “Britain’s Einstein”, Paul Dirac was notorious for interpreting figures of speech literally and not understanding what motivated people to do things.
I once explained to my sister that being autistic means that I may say things some others find inappropriate. When they react with "You can't say that," I respond with "Why not?" They then provide an explanation, and I either understand why I shouldn't say it or remain perplexed about what's wrong with my statement but recognize that it's considered inappropriate.
My sister asked if people know this aspect of me, and I mentioned that people know my tendency to make provocative statements. I told her that it's not uncommon for people to acknowledge the correctness of my statements afterward but insist that they shouldn't have been said in the first place.
My sister remarked that I tend to use words literally, while others attach emotional and personal definitions to them. I recalled an instance when I consulted the dictionary to understand the precise definition of the term "immigrant." According to the dictionary, the word strictly refers to migration (group movement) irrelevant to the reason or method of migration. Using this definition, I stated that African slaves in America were immigrants. Some found this definition offensive, which surprised me, as I wasn't trying to be offensive but linguistically accurate. While I learned not to call slaves immigrants, I said that those offended should be arguing with the dictionary, not me.
Another incident involved me describing a human quality as "not normal," using the term in its literal statistical sense, as a minority attribute. However, some people were offended as they incorrectly interpreted it as me making a value judgment. This highlights the challenges of using language literally and accurately because many people do not.
These examples illustrate how the autistic can become frustrated and puzzled by cultural norms. The autistic often see the culture as secretive, opaque, irrational, counterintuitive, and insincere. The autistic learn that in order to better fit in they must suppress their natural tendency to be honest and open.
It is important to note that this is not a black-and-white portrayal suggesting that culture is entirely wrong or that people with disorders are entirely victims. On one hand, people must work to understand how people with disorders naturally think and behave and to realize that not everyone is or should act the same. On the other hand, social dynamics and norms are vital, and while individuals with disorders may struggle, they also need to adapt. Effective communication requires an understanding of the nuances and predispositions of others and how they perceive the world. These are things the autistic learn through trial and error.
The following two articles, the first a previous post of mine, look further into the intricacies of language. The second link looks at a fascinating scandal where an American professor offended people by speaking Chinese in a foreign language class.
The Answer to History's Most Famous Riddle: The Ambiguity of Language
How a Mild-Mannered USC Professor Accidentally Ignited Academia's Latest Culture War