In The Shyness Guide, I make the case that detachment is a tool one can use to enter and explore the social world.
Autism | People who don’t need People
Do you know the Barbara Streisand song......'People Who Need People'? - which said that such people are are the 'luckiest people in the world'?
Autism | Theory of Mind | Do you think like a Baboon?
Sometimes psychologists try to explain autism using 'theory of mind'. Books on psychology devote whole chapters to theory of mind, but to keep a lid on this idea, I'll just quote Dictionary.com: the ability to interpret one’s own and other people’s mental and emotional states, understanding that each person has unique motives, perspectives, etc. Those … Continue reading Autism | Theory of Mind | Do you think like a Baboon?
Autism | Lack of creativity?
One morning this week, editing my 2012 journal, I came upon a surprise that surprised me again – in physicist Lisa Randall's book Knocking on Heaven's Door (her book about expectations for the Large Hadron Collider), near the end of the book, she makes a comment to the effect that some scientists, like autistic people, … Continue reading Autism | Lack of creativity?
Autism | Do we know what it is? | A review of The Autism Matrix: The Social Origins of the Autism Epidemic
Sociologist Gil Eyal's 2010 book The Autism Matrix: The Social Origins of the Autism Epidemic was a bombshell in the debate over autism. Yet over a decade later almost no one appears to have heard the explosion. The concept of autism was first presented in the 1940s, more or less simultaneously, by New York psychiatrist … Continue reading Autism | Do we know what it is? | A review of The Autism Matrix: The Social Origins of the Autism Epidemic
Autism |Toronto’s van rampage 4 | Alek Minassian convicted – what now?
For some reason the fate of Alek Minassian continues to haunt me. How is it, I ask myself, that someone who killed 10 people and injured 16 more, some permanently, running them down in his rented van here in Toronto 15 minutes walk from my home, now convicted and awaiting sentencing, continues to elicit sympathy … Continue reading Autism |Toronto’s van rampage 4 | Alek Minassian convicted – what now?
Autism | Toronto’s van rampage and the Incels | Alex Minassian convicted – what now?
Alex Minassian's trial finally took place and, to no-one's surprise, he was convicted.
Autism vs the Camera
Here is something peculiar. Many autistic people report that they are visual thinkers. Temple Grandin, the famous animal behavior scientist/engineer, has written about 'thinking in pictures'. From early on in life I was like that too. When I was a small boy I read comic books before I could read (Donald Duck, etc). I … Continue reading Autism vs the Camera
Is this the Autism Highway?
From 2006 to 2016, I ran a website that I called Shy Highway. During that time I produced my second book, The Shyness Guide, then revised it, doubling it in size to what it is today. Along the way though, I got interested in autism. At first I tried to avoid the autism debate. It … Continue reading Is this the Autism Highway?
Alan Conrad 