{"id":4547,"date":"2014-11-21T18:52:04","date_gmt":"2014-11-21T18:52:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/?page_id=4547"},"modified":"2018-04-28T22:33:09","modified_gmt":"2018-04-28T22:33:09","slug":"mea-culpa","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/tu-maltido-amor\/mea-culpa\/","title":{"rendered":"Mea Culpa*"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/186844007&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;visual=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n(Off to a quiet start&#8230;)<\/p>\n<p>Why I imagined our\u00a0brains experience in the same way\u00a0is a mystery.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4356\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4356\" style=\"width: 127px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/sammy-davis-jr.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-4356\" src=\"http:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/sammy-davis-jr-127x160.jpeg\" alt=\"Sammy Davis Jr.\" width=\"127\" height=\"160\" srcset=\"https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/sammy-davis-jr-127x160.jpeg 127w, https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/sammy-davis-jr-279x350.jpeg 279w, https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/sammy-davis-jr.jpeg 462w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 127px) 100vw, 127px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4356\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sammy Davis Jr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Male and female brains seem to work differently.\u00a0Do we\u00a0imagine individual brains develop the same despite environmental differences? Cultural practices produce mutations similar to those produced\u00a0in the brains of laboratory animals over two\u00a0generations. Children of stressed out \u00a0grandparents show adaptations\u00a0in the way their brains process perceptions.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4308\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4308\" style=\"width: 170px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Screenshot-2014-07-28-14.07.30.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-4308\" src=\"http:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Screenshot-2014-07-28-14.07.30-170x95.png\" alt=\"Sweet Pang Is Innocent Kate McGrew 2014\" width=\"170\" height=\"95\" srcset=\"https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Screenshot-2014-07-28-14.07.30-170x95.png 170w, https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Screenshot-2014-07-28-14.07.30-375x211.png 375w, https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Screenshot-2014-07-28-14.07.30-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Screenshot-2014-07-28-14.07.30-672x372.png 672w, https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Screenshot-2014-07-28-14.07.30-1038x576.png 1038w, https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Screenshot-2014-07-28-14.07.30.png 1438w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 170px) 100vw, 170px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4308\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sweet Pang Is Innocent<br \/>Kate McGrew 2014<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>While we see\u00a0similarities in cognition and behavior in people diagnosed with schizophrenia, depression, autism and \u00a0neuroses, we have difficulty seeing\u00a0such phenomena as the result of physical differences in brains. We prefer calling them illnesses. But we do\u00a0view gender orientation as a difference in physical brains.<\/p>\n<p>The politics of genetic psychology.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4229\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4229\" style=\"width: 119px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Screenshot-2014-07-21-16.05.44.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-4229\" src=\"http:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Screenshot-2014-07-21-16.05.44-119x160.png\" alt=\"Toshiro Mifune, Akira Kurosawa\" width=\"119\" height=\"160\" srcset=\"https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Screenshot-2014-07-21-16.05.44-119x160.png 119w, https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Screenshot-2014-07-21-16.05.44.png 245w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 119px) 100vw, 119px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4229\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Toshiro Mifune, Akira Kurosawa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I feel there are\u00a0differences in the way my brain works from people I&#8217;ve known. It responds to stimuli differently; sometimes more aware of that which is less obvious to others while oblivious to that which is obvious to others. I can identify people with similar\u00a0functional differences as my own regardless of gender, ethnicity, age or culture. In fact, it is typical of dogs and fish and birds and lizards. I can understand St. Francis.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, I connect and understand people differently because\u00a0I feel affinity or antipathy intensely in the presence of another and if more than one at a time, nervous until relationships are established. \u00a0I&#8217;m in a jungle of fear and sub cognitive activity. \u00a0This is why music is \u00a0important to me.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4568\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4568\" style=\"width: 375px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a title=\"Answering Machine by Gunnard Doboze\" href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/gunnarddoboze\/connected-ex1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4568\" src=\"http:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/IMG21636-375x250.jpg\" alt=\"Longhorns, Los Olivos 2011\" width=\"375\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/IMG21636-375x250.jpg 375w, https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/IMG21636-170x113.jpg 170w, https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/IMG21636-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/IMG21636.jpg 1134w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 375px) 100vw, 375px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4568\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Longhorns, Los Olivos 2011<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>We expect a brown cow to be essentially the same cow as a black or white cow but of a brown color.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Color is a characteristic of cowness.<\/p>\n<p>Color doesn\u2019t distinguish cowness;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Autism is a characteristic human experience affected by\u00a0early childhood experience. It is hypersensitivity to social interactions but you&#8217;re likely to see it as\u00a0insensitivity because of defensiveness.<\/p>\n<p>The trait is\u00a0present from early childhood, characterized by difficulty in communicating and forming relationships and using language and abstract concepts. We\u00a0have issues with <em>non-verbal<\/em> communication, i.e., social interactions, activities that include play and banter. We don&#8217;t get the joke or we do get the joke but no one else is going there. \u00a0The genetic traits of autism spectrum disorders are similar for\u00a0ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder), bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and clinical depression.**<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4224\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4224\" style=\"width: 140px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Einstein.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-4224\" src=\"http:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Einstein-140x160.jpg\" alt=\"Albert Einstein\" width=\"140\" height=\"160\" srcset=\"https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Einstein-140x160.jpg 140w, https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Einstein-306x350.jpg 306w, https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Einstein.jpg 586w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 140px) 100vw, 140px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4224\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Albert Einstein<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Note to aliens (and\/or public agencies): if you expect\u00a0autistic spectrum in another, you are likely on the spectrum yourself. We expect people to be like ourselves and they are, somewhat. We relate to the world through similar mechanisms\u00a0but we\u00a0don&#8217;t see, hear nor feel the same way about very much. Essentially, we get\u00a0what we expect.<\/p>\n<p>Autism inhibits\u00a0my ability to understand\u00a0nonverbal communication and meanwhile I&#8217;m getting what I expect. You can imagine. \u00a0Abstract concepts\u00a0are difficult but not always and it sneaks up on me. Spoonness, fatness, sidewalk&#8230; I can get things like smarmy and inconsiderate, of course, \u00a0lovely and indomitable! But roundness has always puzzled me. Perhaps, it&#8217;s in the way my brain processes language.<\/p>\n<p>I take things literally. I&#8217;m logical about language, disambiguating expressions carefully parsing\u00a0words or music or images. I&#8217;m a\u00a0foil to chaos. I eat entropy and sing it. I&#8217;m good with maths for practical purposes. The arbitrariness of numbers irritates me. Intuitive processes are my fort\u00e9: dancing, composing, painting, sculpture, photography, \u00a0sailing, anywhere context is visual or audio, intuitive math, synthesis, inductive logic. My condition puzzled people when I was a child because my analytical and intuitive functions unite.<\/p>\n<p>Relationship is about interpretation in the presence of emotional, limbic and other triggers; a misunderstanding could catapult me from missing a word to losing a friend. As a child, I made decisions about the likely intention, motivation and consciousness of others.<\/p>\n<p>Teachers in schools I attended\u00a0mistakenly assumed that human beings are a certain way, specifically, not semitic. This preference was reflected in the models presented to children in media.\u00a0My childhood was so completely unlike this model that I felt always like an\u00a0impostor and yet had no idea this was my inner fear, that \u00a0the posture and face I present to the world is a fraud. I had no father and not only was my older brother unsympathetic, but competitive. We were like Harpo and Zeppo. If he had only been \u00a0musically gifted we could have gotten into a freak show. The more I tried to resemble the typical model, the less authentic I became so that, as an adult, I only valued that which couldn&#8217;t be me and since I&#8217;m an\u00a0impostor, I deserve nor expect satisfaction from anything I&#8217;d struggled to achieve and I thought this must be\u00a0typical of life for human beings.<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s really typical?<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3396\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3396\" style=\"width: 110px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Harpo.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-3396\" src=\"http:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Harpo-110x160.png\" alt=\"Harpo Marx\" width=\"110\" height=\"160\" srcset=\"https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Harpo-110x160.png 110w, https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Harpo.png 210w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 110px) 100vw, 110px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3396\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Harpo Marx<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Extraordinary is typical. The only\u00a0ordinary people are in movies and badly written novels. Fortunately, ordinary is a concept that\u00a0goes\u00a0right over the heads of your average autistic and, at an important level, there&#8217;s as much or more\u00a0difference between human individuals than there is between species. The difference may be too subtle for ordinary people to see?<\/p>\n<p>Media stereotypes also empower the idea\u00a0of normal. This is the principle allegory of\u00a0H.G. Wells&#8217; novel,\u00a0<em>1984 <\/em>and of Swift&#8217;s <em>Gulliver&#8217;s Travels<\/em>, both of whom described worlds in which\u00a0human beings are\u00a0absurd <em>because<\/em>\u00a0they believe that which they think\u00a0is expected of them, whether or not it makes no sense, which is my life. Every novelist since Cervantes showed\u00a0it isn&#8217;t that\u00a0<em>some<\/em> of us are autistic. It is that we are each more or less autistic than each other. And the kicker? When you understand that the more of this trait that flavors your persona, the more you have in common with the whale.<\/p>\n<p>Shift gears&#8230; we&#8217;re approaching a grade in traffic.<\/p>\n<p>During the first half of the 20th century, peer approval became the primary source of core values in America. Prior to this period, core values were transferred from generation to generation in traditions. Today, media presents models of successful peers against which we compare\u00a0ourselves, which turns\u00a0us into perennial wannabes.\u00a0Media offers\u00a0remedies for our weaknesses: low-calorie food, golf, make-up, marriage, masters degrees, shamanistic and tantric knowledge, divorce; fashions we adapt\u00a0to\u00a0change who and what we think we are. Marketers take advantage of our confusion about who and what we are to excite us about\u00a0products we hope will make us\u00a0lovable but\u00a0which\u00a0takes us away from accepting ourselves as we are. Everything seems arbitrary and that&#8217;s called, normal, typical, average, ordinary&#8230; successful but strangely unsatisfying. For some, experienced as time to get a new spouse or wish for one, which explains the purpose\u00a0of Christian evangelism. (Ah, entropy!)<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3904\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3904\" style=\"width: 103px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Michael-1944.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-3904\" src=\"http:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Michael-1944-103x160.jpg\" alt=\"Michael Myrow 1945\" width=\"103\" height=\"160\" srcset=\"https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Michael-1944-103x160.jpg 103w, https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Michael-1944-227x350.jpg 227w, https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Michael-1944-664x1024.jpg 664w, https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/Michael-1944.jpg 1088w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 103px) 100vw, 103px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3904\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael Myrow 1945<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>After a traumatic peer disapproval event, a child, whose brain shows up on the autistic spectrum, is literally in PTSD; sensitized to alienation and, since\u00a0the child wouldn&#8217;t know\u00a0how and why they are different, they may feel\u00a0that they are the problem, that they are not enough, that something is wrong with them. \u00a0I once had a friend like that. Extraordinary skills\u00a0and\u00a0terror. I felt a great relief, when I read <em>Heart of Darkness.\u00a0<\/em>If that&#8217;s as bad as it gets, things couldn&#8217;t get much worse.<\/p>\n<p>When I was a child, <em>scientists<\/em> hadn&#8217;t\u00a0distinguished\u00a0differences between human beings related to differences in the way our brains work. We thought something <em>is<\/em> wrong with people who had physical differences, hearing deficiencies or blindness, not to mention, behavioral or cognitive differences,\u00a0gender, gender orientation, age, appearance, ethnicity, language and other cultural differences.<\/p>\n<p>The economic and social advantages of being included in a favorable category\u00a0requires\u00a0exclusion of others on the basis of differences. Communities are based around what isn&#8217;t tolerated. Media constantly reinforces this with stereotypes. There&#8217;s a danger in this:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4548\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4548\" style=\"width: 333px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Hitler-directing-the-Berlin-Philharmonic.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4548\" src=\"http:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Hitler-directing-the-Berlin-Philharmonic.png\" alt=\"Adolph Hitler\" width=\"333\" height=\"188\" srcset=\"https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Hitler-directing-the-Berlin-Philharmonic.png 333w, https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/Hitler-directing-the-Berlin-Philharmonic-170x95.png 170w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 333px) 100vw, 333px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4548\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adolph Hitler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>For those of us whose thinking is more\u00a0characterized by difficulty in communicating and forming relationships with other people and in using language and abstract concepts, i.e., with brains that support autism, our view of the world affects social interaction in such a way that additional stress reinforces fears and decisions to see ourselves as separate and assume we &#8220;do not belong here&#8221;. Suicide, drug dependency, emotional co-dependency, criminality, all of these things are possible. It&#8217;s a threat to humanity more deadly\u00a0than HIV but unlike the virus that attacks the human organism, the threat of autism\u00a0is that it is a quintessentially\u00a0human condition and the problem isn&#8217;t that we need to stamp it out but rather, nurture it.<\/p>\n<p>Autism shapes each persona in a different way. Extremes can be irritating.\u00a0Some are capable of the focused intensity of Adolph Hitler or\u00a0the linguistic power of William Blake, the visual skills\u00a0of Vincent Van Gogh. Difficulty with intimacy, feeling and expressing love is a trait they have in common.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4283\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4283\" style=\"width: 311px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/5b49d126eb2243d558f13f2e18738775.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4283 \" src=\"http:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/5b49d126eb2243d558f13f2e18738775-375x293.jpg\" alt=\"The Kiss, Marc Chagall\" width=\"311\" height=\"243\" srcset=\"https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/5b49d126eb2243d558f13f2e18738775-375x293.jpg 375w, https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/5b49d126eb2243d558f13f2e18738775-170x133.jpg 170w, https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/5b49d126eb2243d558f13f2e18738775.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 311px) 100vw, 311px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4283\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Kiss, Marc Chagall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Our brains are structurally, electro-chemically different, analogous to differences in the operating systems used by a computer processor and this is a difference in degree, not kind.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>We\u00a0are not to be pitied<\/em>. Is it appropriate to pity a person whose body develops differently, dwarfs and giants? Why not pity a woman for being female? Patronize a person\u00a0<em>because<\/em>\u00a0they are blind, deaf, old or gay? Segregate children \u00a0based on\u00a0their skin color or ethnicity? Not appreciate the mystification of a person with dementia? (What!)<\/p>\n<p>Traditionally, the social purpose of ostracizing and alienating those who are different is to homogenize and force cooperation, which\u00a0drives away those on the spectrum. \u00a0Cultures are defined by what they don\u2019t tolerate and a bi-product of homogenous stereotypes in media is that people with autism are not tolerated. But, since the positive side of the spectrum is\u00a0creative power, under the circumstances we now face, throwing away the gift of genius seems so extraordinarily stupid as to be predictable.<\/p>\n<p>I find it interesting that\u00a0autism was\u00a0distinguished as such by my generation. What\u00a0happened that forced us to look at a condition that has always been with us in this way? Has this anything to do with the rising of intolerance expressed in\u00a0neoconservative biblical literalism? \u00a0Biblical literalism is intolerant of diversity of views and distinguishing autism exempts\u00a0autistic\u00a0people\u00a0from social rituals.\u00a0\u00a0Attachment to stereotypical models of human perfection prevents us from seeing the potential value of the untypically autistic person.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, on evidence, the technology that allows us\u00a0to manage unplanned growth of\u00a0 the human population is producing and exacerbating global climate change by evaporating the atmosphere and retaining heat. This has resulted in catastrophic destruction and deaths. Ultimately, extinction of all life is threatened. This is a time when we need creative leadership\u00a0and since it appears there&#8217;s a correlation between autism and creativity, it behooves us to understand and respect the sensitivities of creative people. Not long ago, we didn&#8217;t\u00a0accommodate those\u00a0with mobility differences by providing ramps where there are curbs and staircases and chirping\u00a0traffic signals at highway intersections. How must we accommodate the emotionally and intellectually gifted among us? What kind of ramps can we build at the curbs and intersections of social compatibility?<\/p>\n<p>Ways of thinking that are common with autism are not only creative. We possess an ability to sustain the imagination of vastly complex ideas while at the same time, absorbing and accommodating new information in real time, making global changes in huge networks of images, sounds and ideas \u201con the fly.&#8221; \u00a0Among those of us who maintain in the mainstream\u00a0\u201cnormal\u201d population, many of us have a flair\u00a0for driving cars, flying airplanes, surfing, playing video games. In my experience, I&#8217;ve seen\u00a0a difference\u00a0between this kind of ability and an advanced\u00a0facility for synthesizing and sustaining an intuitive grasp of complex conceptual systems outside of language, while still maintaining analytical functions that are linguistic in nature, the fusion of which allows some autistic people to intuitively predict the probable future location in time and space of hundreds of objects moving at different velocities and directions.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3396\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3396\" style=\"width: 110px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Harpo.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-3396\" src=\"http:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Harpo-110x160.png\" alt=\"Harpo Marx\" width=\"110\" height=\"160\" srcset=\"https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Harpo-110x160.png 110w, https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Harpo.png 210w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 110px) 100vw, 110px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3396\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Harpo Marx<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Because of one popular motion picture,\u00a0many people\u00a0imagine\u00a0autistic focus in terms of the Rainman&#8217;s facility with maths, but when this ability is applied in music, you have a Stravinsky, Coltrane, Monk, Messiaen and so on, individuals who fed their hyper-cognitive brains with harmonic relationship data and synthesized complex systems of music and then reduced this to notation on a page. Similarly, the ability can be nurtured in sciences and any of the arts and even spirituality.<\/p>\n<p>However, the area of suffering\u00a0for many of those colored in the spectrum of autism, is emotional hypersensitivity. The problem is not our sensitivity but that we protect ourselves\u00a0by avoiding intimacy and group situations in which emotional\u00a0gaming is common, aspects of life in our culture that are primary themes of motion pictures and television soaps and sitcoms:\u00a0fear of\u00a0separation.<\/p>\n<p>I identify with people on the autistic spectrum. I identify in this way for the same political reason\u00a0as others might identify as gay: as a way of standing for my right to be me in a culture that identifies as not like me. I identify with other types of mental differences because they put up with similar stigmata: those who are depressed, suffer (enjoy?) mood swings and schizophrenics. Unlike many\u00a0who have identified as gay in this culture, however, I\u2019ve never had to face placard waving gangs of homophobes or laws preventing me from forming a domestic partnership but throughout my life I&#8217;ve sequestered thoughts of separation.\u00a0I don&#8217;t wave an autism pride flag but my brain works fine for me. Where I am\u00a0on the spectrum was never\u00a0clinicized but I create\u00a0from imagination very powerfully.<\/p>\n<p>As a child and as an adult, I&#8217;ve experienced extremes bullying and ostracism, I learned to avoid exposure to\u00a0derision by hiding my abilities. I learned to forgive the pity of \u00a0parents, who saw my peculiarities of brilliance coupled with social denseness as an imperfection. However, my patience wears\u00a0thin as I watch sane, &#8220;normal&#8221;\u00a0people methodically\u00a0dismantling our global ecological system because they aren&#8217;t able to\u00a0see how they are doing it and don&#8217;t respect\u00a0those who do.\u00a0I&#8217;m\u00a0obligated\u00a0to reveal what&#8217;s so about this and my area of expertise\u00a0is language, media and music.<\/p>\n<p><em>*Many things written on this website are figuratively rather than literally true. I have never been diagnosed with, nor even examined for Autistic Spectrum Disorder. The spectrum wasn&#8217;t postulated\u00a0until recently. I relate strongly to experiences described by autistic people.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>**(A team at the Cross Disorders Group of the Psychiatric Genomic Consortium suggests that the five mental disorders and illnesses have the same common inherited genetic variations.&#8221; (http:\/\/www.medicalnewstoday.com\/info\/autism\/)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Off to a quiet start&#8230;) Why I imagined our\u00a0brains experience in the same way\u00a0is a mystery. Male and female brains seem to work differently.\u00a0Do we\u00a0imagine individual brains develop the same despite environmental differences? Cultural practices produce mutations similar to those produced\u00a0in the brains of laboratory animals over two\u00a0generations. Children of stressed out \u00a0grandparents show adaptations\u00a0in &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/tu-maltido-amor\/mea-culpa\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Mea Culpa*<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4547","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/tu-maltido-amor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/tu-maltido-amor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/tu-maltido-amor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/tu-maltido-amor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/tu-maltido-amor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4547"}],"version-history":[{"count":47,"href":"https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/tu-maltido-amor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4610,"href":"https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/tu-maltido-amor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4547\/revisions\/4610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelwinn.org\/tu-maltido-amor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}