Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Asperger and his syndrome
- 2 ‘Autistic psychopathy’ in childhood
- 3 The relationship between Asperger's syndrome and Kanner's autism
- 4 Clinical and neurobiological aspects of Asperger syndrome in six family studies
- 5 Asperger syndrome in adulthood
- 6 Living with Asperger's syndrome
- 7 The autobiographical writings of three Asperger syndrome adults: problems of interpretation and implications for theory
- Name Index
- Subject Index
5 - Asperger syndrome in adulthood
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Asperger and his syndrome
- 2 ‘Autistic psychopathy’ in childhood
- 3 The relationship between Asperger's syndrome and Kanner's autism
- 4 Clinical and neurobiological aspects of Asperger syndrome in six family studies
- 5 Asperger syndrome in adulthood
- 6 Living with Asperger's syndrome
- 7 The autobiographical writings of three Asperger syndrome adults: problems of interpretation and implications for theory
- Name Index
- Subject Index
Summary
It's only by logic and lack of emotions that I get through. Hiding feelings came after I became the victim. All emotions are a sign of weakness. I'm about as flexible as a thick bar of metal in a barrel of nitrogen … I shall turn out a mechanical, inflexible person who [sic] nobody likes, nobody loves and who everyone will be glad about when I'm in my grave. I'd only be concerned with money … It's a vicious circle. i. I get teased 2. I make myself miserable and cynical 3. I get teased again … The best school would be one where I spent my time working with machines – remove the human factor. If the people were very nice I could probably do very well. What I find difficult about learning, as well as the teasing, is that there's a massive great group of us and they're all unruly … I can break out of the vicious circle, but I can't take down the barriers. The clay has set – I've moulded my personality. The wall's there for good. I'm no good at changing. My flexibility was one of the first things I lost – lost completely.
So wrote a twelve-year-old boy with Asperger syndrome to his mother to explain his quite unprecedented emotional distress when the family cat died.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome , pp. 147 - 183Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1991
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