The Autists: women on the spectrum

A computer might be amazing at doing calculations, says Jonna Bornemark, but it has no judgement. Yet the capacity for judgement exists in every human being. It’s a hidden bank of knowledge that we have forgotten how to tap into. We have instead come to equate judgement with subjective opinion, which may vary from individual to individual.

Among these traits: not enjoying talk about feelings and relationships, preferring to sit alone in one’s room and immerse oneself in one’s own interests, having a hard time grasping subtext, and not being able to sugar-coat one’s words.

Parents of autistic girls who keep it together at school speak of difficulties simply getting school representatives to believe in the diagnosis. The teachers don’t see the girls breaking down at home after the end of the school day.

To Weil, the sacred, the basis of human worth, the impersonal, is the human ability to suffer when experiencing bodily or spiritual harm. What remains is the trust of a child, the childlike core deep in every human heart that expects to be treated well, and thus protests when someone hurts it. That trust, that expectation of goodness, that part of

What distance must I maintain between myself and others if we are to together construct a sociability without alienation, a solitude without exile? ROLAND BARTHES, HOW TO LIVE TOGETHER

Autists are bad politicians and impossible diplomats.

Chores are carried out by capable people. I wish I were capable.

In light of this development, it’s easy to see why people who are different need their diagnoses. It’s their only hope of being listened to. In a top-down system, that slip of paper turns into a tool for survival. With a diagnosis in black and white, adaptations might be made to meet your needs. Without it, you don’t stand a chance.

Habit leaves us numb and robs us of our capacity for awe. Automatised observations allow our souls to slowly petrify, turning us into robots.