Strengths and Weaknesses
The great Liverpool footballer manager Bob Paisley won league titles and European Cups galore. He was a great and successful manager, but not one for fancy words and elaborate theories. Unlike a lot of other, much less successful managers, you would never see him on TV panels and chat shows. He was a man of few words. But the words he did use were simple, straight to the point, and accurate. He would sum up the football matches which Liverpool would play with the words “strengths and weaknesses.” The opposition team has strengths and weaknesses as does your own team. The key is to expose your opponents weaknesses and nullify their strengths whilst playing to your own strengths.
Autism is a condition that is described – even defined – in terms of weaknesses, the Triad of Impairments with respect to Social Interaction, Communication, and Imagination. There is a debate as to whether the word ‘disability’ is help or hindrance, something that reduces a person to the status of a label in the eyes of uncomprehending others. My view is that in large part Autism is a social disability in the sense of being a disability of ‘society,’ that is, of others and their lack of understanding. Since human beings are social beings, needing one another to be themselves, a social impairment will be experienced as a disability, effectively blocking the autistic person from a full and free participation in many key areas of social life. So let’s count these as weaknesses, acknowledging the extent to which these impairments are as social as they are
personal.
Then we come to the strengths…
Let me start by saying I am not a fan of the superiority complexes that some (few) exhibit in the autism community (if it can be considered acommunity). I see some, a vocal few, assert their superiority over the herd of neurotypical others in terms of their objectivity, their logical approach to the world, their refusal to follow the conventional wisdom and fit in. I completely understand where these people are coming from philosophically, having written at length on objective standards, reality, and morality, something which immediately puts me in contrary relation with the dominant view in an age in which ethics is reduced to irreducible subjective opinion and each individual is entitled to choose and pursue the good as s/he sees fit. I’ve never followed and never fitted in, but I have tried. This is the crucial point. I see tendencies to autistic superiority and elitism an aggressive reaction to the frustrations of social failure. They are a defence mechanism that has the autistic person on the front foot and punching hard.
Assertions of superiority andtendencies to elitism is not the way I would go. These things entrench and extend the separations that are the blight of an autistic person. You are never going to get along with people if you are constantly telling them how superior you are to them and they are just an unthinking herd of conformists. No. Life is social, and much of it is routine and mundane. For life to go on, the bulk of society’s members have to turn up and put a shift in. The statements of autistic superiority that I sometimes read suggest nothing less than a Nietzschean aristocratic elitism. As I read further I anticipate a condemnation of the mass of humanity – the neurotypical – as the ‘the weak and the botched.’ This division between the autistic and the neurotypical merely reinforces baneful tendencies to divide people by ‘othering.’ I’m against it.
All that said …
I can see where the more strident autistic voice comes from – it is an aggressive reaction to the years of neglect and denigration coming from a determination to boost the confidence of autistic people by taking a legitimate pride in their unique and often very powerful abilities. Again, I would just add the crucial rider that if we were this strong and powerful, then we wouldn’t require the help of others we keep requesting. The danger is that those neurotypical others will see autistic people as so strong, assertive, and confident as to belie their requests for help. People who are that goodare more than capable of looking after themselves.
So my view is the boring one – autistic people possess both strengths and weaknesses and need the help and understanding of others if they are to succeed socially and have a flourishing existence. That requires unity with others, not division. That unity with others, though, can and ought to be one that is based on relations of mutuality and reciprocity rather than dependence. To focus purely upon weaknesses, upon the things that autistic people cannot do on their own, only with the assistance of others, places us immediately in relations of dependence, with concomitant feelings of inferiority, failure, and frustration. Play to your strengths, not to your weaknesses. If you play to your strengths, then the path is open to entry and participation in reciprocal relations of mutual growth.
It is for all these reasons and more (the confidence boost, the reassurance, the reminder of our gifts), that I support the emphasis that is placed upon Autistic Strengths. Autism is not all about weaknesses, deficiencies, and impairments and these things alone should not define autism. As a condition, autism is a different way of thinking, processing information, acting, knowing, and being. It’s not necessarily a better way, but neither is it necessarily worse. It can be both, it all depends on how you and others approach and manage the strengths and
weaknesses we all have.
Understanding and accepting the positives to a different way of thinking, acting, and being fosters the development of compassion which, in turn, can have a significant impact on well-being and mental health. In the first instance, that compassion is something that the autistic person shows to himself or herself. Beyond that, it grows to become the compassion that wider society shows to autistic people.
I shall resist the temptation to go through this list of Autistic Strengths, relating each positive to my own personal attributes. As I say, I try to check tendencies to superiority complex. Perhaps the best way to proceed is to make a quick comment on an unusual aspect of each, revealing characteristics and quirks which may not be so obvious to others.
Visual Skills: visual learning, detailed focus:
A psychometric test I once did revealed me to be a “creative visualist thinker.” I think in terms of pictures and images, also colours. I use words like artists use paint. I also tend to gather notes in one place, like a painter puts paint on his or her palette. And then I start to blend. When I write, I paint, and paint on a broad canvas. I select words to fit the big picture I have in my head. Words and ideas conjure up images or, more accurately, the images I have in my head conjure up ideas and words. It makes me smile when I see some autistic people underline the extent to which their autism makes them logical, impersonal, rational, cool, scientific, objective. It can. But I would emphasise the words of another creative visualist thinker here:
"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination encircles the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution." (Albert Einstein, What Life Means to Einstein (1924); quotedin "What Life Means to Einstein: An Interview by George Sylvester Viereck" in The Saturday Evening Post (26 October 1929).
Wonderful. But that imagination can, and usually does, take you off the beaten track of typical ways of doing things, the ways that work for most other people. Herein lies one source of that constant companion of autistic people, the painfully puzzled question that others continually ask you: ‘why don’t you do it like everyone else, it is so much easier?’ It is for them, but not for you. Whilst you struggle continually to explain why, there is no similar struggle to understand on the part of those who know that they are right and you are wrong. A strength can also be a social weakness, a failure on the part of others’ understanding.
Attention to detail: thorough and accurate.
Indeed, yes, to the point of pedantry and beyond. I like to tell people that I am a historian by training, which is true. But before the training came the inclination. On things that are of interest to me I am rigorous and relentless when it comes to detail and accuracy. But I should add the crucial rider and say that on those things that hold no interest to me I can be remiss. I can miss things. But set to work on tables of facts and figures, with each thing having to go in its right place, I am world class.
Creativity: uniqueway of thinking, novel way of solving problems.
I would say that being challenged by the impairments that come with autism I was forced into alternate ways of doing things, except that I always seemed to do this quite naturally and spontaneously. My strongest memories of my earliest years at school were of others checking me and querying my way of doing things. I was told time and again that ‘you’re not doing it right.’ People would show me how, teachers and fellow pupils alike, and I could never follow them. I would do things my own special way. There may well have been better and easier ways to do things, saving a lot of time and energy. But my ways worked for me. In the Belbins team roles test I did, I emerged as a Plant, noted for genius, intellect, unorthodoxy, individuality, and imagination – the maverick in the group who comes up with unique ways to solve a problem. It has been a way of life for me, taking an indirect route where others go direct.
Integrity: honesty and trustworthy
I’ll be provocative and say that this is a strength born of a weakness – the inability to play a social role, to perform, to be as inauthentic as society would sometimes have you be, to lie, to be complicit. William Blake was described as a ‘man without a mask.’ Honesty is not only the best policy, it is often the only one an autistic person knows. On the downside, you can understand why autistic people are frequently let down and taken advantage of. ‘It’s a tough old world for idiots’ is a line I once heard in a film (spoken by Donald Pleasance in the character of either Burke or Hare). It can be a tough old world for the honest and the innocent to. I count this as a strength of autistic people and a weakness on the part of a society that is always falling short of its true potential.
Expertise: in-depth knowledge, high level skills
Autistic people can take their special interest to the nth degree. I did it in my areas, others can do it in theirs. That knowledge can be knowledge of anything. Have that level of knowledge on Elvis and society deems you an idiot, have it on philosophy and society hails you a genius. I have in-depth knowledge in both areas and make no distinction. Strength or weakness?
Memory: excellent recall and memory
I have a powerful long-term memory and can recall the smallest of details from long ago in an instant. I can also absorb large quantities of information. Whilst I struggled badly at most subjects at school, I excelled at history. I didn’t have to work hard memorising huge chunks of facts and details, meaning that I had more time and energy over to exercise the critical judgements which yield the top marks.
I have to say I have an appalling short term memory. Anything that deviates from my routines and patterns in the known world tends to go in one ear and out of the other.
Observational Skills: learn by looking/doing and self-evaluate
I always have to see the thing being done and, best of all, do it before I learn. Verbal instructions are just an amorphous flow of indistinct words to me. This is something that others struggle to understand. They explain clearly and simply and expect understanding. When understanding doesn’t come, they merely repeat the same process. Repetition of the same isn’t the solution. The issue is not one of slowness in learning, but of a different way of learning. Failure to grasp that point leads to very smart autistic people being considered slow and stupid. This is wrong. Learning by looking and doing is learning. It is for educators to identify and adopt the most suitable learning strategy.
Analytical: problem-solve, identify patterns.
I am always forming patterns. This is a creative process for me. This might not be exactly the same as identifying patterns. I search for patterns by establishing connections. This may involve me imagining links where there are none. But isn’t this the way that creatives and mavericks make discoveries and solve problems? I break down entities and things into component parts and then see how all things relate to one another.
Deep Focus: concentration and responsiveness to structure.
When I am working on a problem or a project, I look track of time and place. I shut the world out and focus.
‘Glad to know that you’re still alive,’ my Director of Studies greeted me, after I contacted him after six months of research. It seemed like five minutes to me.
Critical Thinking: may question normative behaviour
‘Why are you always questioning things?’ my uncle once asked me. ‘Do I?’ I replied.
To get a pertinent answer often requires that you ask an impertinent question. It may indicate something
that the philosophers I studied in depth developed vast critiques (Kant and Marx certainly).
Tenacity and Resilience: strength and determination, self-motivated.
A solitary tree, if it grows at all, grows to be strong. I never responded to attempts at extrinsic motivation at school. The same in politics. If people push, then I am inclined to push back. I learned very early on in life that those who push seldom help you to get where you need to be, even when they may have your best interests at heart. They know only their way of doing things. That way may well work for most people. But you are not ‘most people,’ which is something that the well-intentioned external educators and motivators rarely understand. I developed resilience in face of all this external pressure, and I learned to power onwards by my own steam. I am hugely self-motivated. It is little wonder that I emphasise inner motive force to the extent I do in my political and ethical writings. Without that inner motive power, an ideal or a cause is empty.
Kindness: kind to others, acceptance of difference.
I am impatient, I have a short fuse, I am hyper-sensitive, can weigh up people and circumstances in an instance, and spend an awful lot of my time withholding harsh judgement. I am very accepting of difference. I just note that much that contemporary society celebrates as difference is predictable, conventional, and conformist to the core, and that it is the things that I adhere to – the transcendent standards of the true, the good, and the beautiful – which mark me out as truly different. But I am understanding of others. Speak as you find. People in the flesh are a whole lot better than people in their electronic form.
