When I first started in this field there were all kinds of stereotypes about autism, as if these were children from another planet, or children who had been brought up by wolves, that they weren't part of our population and were somehow separate.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the misconceptions about autism, emphasizing that autistic individuals are a part of our society and should not be viewed as separate or different.
Simon Baron-Cohen reflects on the stereotypes and misconceptions surrounding autism when he began his career. He points out that many people viewed autistic children as entirely different from others, likening them to beings from another planet or suggesting they had been raised in isolation. This perspective reinforces the importance of understanding and accepting autism as a part of the diverse fabric of humanity rather than as an otherness that alienates these individuals.
In practice
In a seminar on autism awareness, this quote can be used to emphasize the need to challenge stereotypes.
Empathy is like a universal solvent. Any problem immersed in empathy becomes soluble. It is effective as a way of anticipating and resolving interpersonal problems, whether this is a marital conflict, an international conflict, a problem at work, difficulties in a friendship, political deadlocks, a family dispute, or a problem with a neighbor.
Brains come in different types and they're all normal.
Well, in the general population, we find differences between the typical male and typical female. For example, males seem to be more interested in systems and females seem to be more interested in people and particularly people's emotions.
Empathy is a skill like any other human skill - and if you get a chance to practice, you can get better at it.
There are people with Asperger's whom I've met who certainly would be very upset to learn they'd hurt another person's feelings. They often have very strong moral consciences and moral codes. They care about not hurting people.
If we treat another person as essentially bad, we dehumanize him or her. If we take the view that every human being has some good in them, even if it is only 0.1 percent of their makeup, then by focusing on their good part, we humanize them. By acknowledging and attending to and rewarding their good part, we allow it to grow, like a small flower in a desert.
One of the things I'm best at is modeling. I find someone who is best at something I want to learn. Then I model them, and learn it myself. Then, when I've proven it to myself, I teach it to others.
Secretly, in studies and attics and schoolrooms all over America, people must be writing.
Order and simplification are the first steps toward the mastery of a subject.
The first eight years of schooling was with all white people. So that helped me to understand how white people think. I think that transition is what helped me bridge the gap, because that's what my success has really been about: bridging the gap between the black community and the white community.
Reading is one of the true pleasures of life. In our age of mass culture, when so much that we encounter is abridged,adapted, adulterated, shredded, and boiled down, it is mind-easing and mind-inspiring to sit down privately with a congenial book.
I think books are like people, in the sense that they'll turn up in your life when you most need them.
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