Message from discussion
Purple fur
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Message-ID: <AUTISM%92061220091510@SJUVM.BITNET>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.autism
Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1992 17:26:08 CST
Sender: SJU Autism and Developmental Disablities List
<AUT...@SJUVM.BITNET>
From: Jim Sinclair <GO...@UKANVM.BITNET>
Subject: RE: Purple fur
In-Reply-To: Message of Thu,
11 Jun 1992 10:53:49 EDT from <gwdriskill@UALR.EDU>
Lines: 131
Gerald,
Sure, there are other colors that I like. But nothing else does the
things to my eyes and brain that purple does. In order to enjoy other
colors, I have to first be tuned in to my eyes enough to notice the
colors. But purple things are easier for me to see than non-purple
things. Most inputs get lost somewhere between my eyes and my brain.
But when purple inputs get to my eyes, my eyes grab my brain and say,
"Look, there's something purple!"
You kind of stole my line about boundaries, which was exactly the point
I was trying to make: that as long as I'm not grabbing purple objects
that belong to you or fondling purple clothing that you're wearing, you
should respect my choice to wear my own purple clothes, or fondle my own
piece of purple fur. (I don't sing to my piece of purple fur, by the
way. But at about the time you posted your message yesterday, I was
snuggling with it while listening to music. However, I wasn't playing
the music very loudly, and it was mid-morning, not the middle of the
night, so I don't think anyone's boundaries were being violated.)
I'm glad you decided to jump in on this topic, because it brings up
something I meant to write to you about months ago relating to autistic
culture. There's a phenomenon I first observed during my first encounter
with other high-functioning autistic people, and it really became obvious
last February when I spent a weekend with other autistic people: the use
of personal fixations to make interpersonal connections.
I first observed this at the 1989 TEACCH conference, when I was introduced
to some other autistic people who lived in a TEACCH-managed group home.
These people weren't really all that "high-functioning" compared to many
of the people I've met since then, at least in terms of their conversational
speech. But they talked fluently if not interactively, and it quickly
became obvious that they had a geography fixation. They had a *shared*
geography fixation: two autistic people living in the same group home had
the same fixation. I suspect that was more than just coincidence; it
indicated some kind of interaction and sharing of interests.
As soon as they found out I had driven in from Kansas, they wanted to
know what highways I had taken. They knew the roads between Kansas and
North Carolina better than I did, despite the fact that neither of them
could drive. They talked about different possible routes and what cities
each route would have taken me through. Of course I couldn't follow the
conversation because I'm absolutely terrible with geography and usually
don't even know where I am, let alone how I got there--but I could still
recognize this as an attempt to relate their interests to my travel
experience.
The next day one of them approached me and began talking (rambling
would be a better word) about how he had looked up the names of all the
counties in Kansas and North Carolina in his almanac. He went on and
on, rather disjointedly, telling me the name and publication information
of the almanac, so I tried to focus him by asking, "What did you find?
Were there any counties with the same names?" Unfortunately, his focusing
problems prevented him from recognizing this as a suggestion that he could
make his point without all those background details; he just experienced
it as an interruption that made him lose his place so he had to start all
over again. This time I waited quietly through the interminable buildup,
and he eventually did get to the point and tell me that he had found ten
county names that occurrred in both North Carolina and Kansas. He recited
the list of names. Then he turned to another autistic person he had just
met that day. She was from Michigan, and he told her he was going to look
up Michigan county names when he got home that evening.
This person had some pretty severe problems with conversation. His speech
was definitely non-interactive and extremely perseverative. But in spite
of only being able to speak non-interactively and perseveratively, he was
using his fixation to try to make a connection between himself and other
autistic people he met.
Now I know other autistic people who have considerably better conversational
skills than that, and I've observed some fascinating uses of fixations to
make connections. For example, Kathy is fascinated by anything having to
do with Russia or the Soviet Union. A few months ago I received a letter
from another autistic person who had met Kathy and me in Indianapolis last
summer. Part of the letter read, "Please give my regards to Kathy. I
have thought of her so many times as events occurred in Russia and the
Soviet Union." I had also thought of Kathy when I saw news stories about
those events (and as you know, my own interest in international politics--
or any other kind of politics--is practically nonexistent). Both of us
had used our awareness of Kathy's fixation to be able to recognize things
that would be of interest to her.
Kathy is also aware of the fixations of her other autistic friends. When
I visited her apartment, I wasn't surprised to see the walls covered with
maps and flags and clippings from Russian newspapers. I had seen Kathy
become completely transfixed by a display of flags at a conference, and I
had been nearly deafened by her shrieks over the phone when she called me
while watching the Olympics and seeing a parade with the flags of all the
countries represented there. But along with all the things relating to
her own fixations, I also saw some artwork on her walls which I recognized
as being the work of other autistic people. I recognized some of Jessy's
paintings of street lamps, and one of Barbara's traffic lights. Kathy
says she thinks she can recognize which traffic light it is. I don't
know Barb well enough to be able to tell her traffic lights apart or to
understand much about what they mean to her, but I did recognize that it
was one of her traffic lights. Kathy is friends with Barb, so she has
learned more about the traffic lights because they're important to Barb.
Another example: Even before I met Donna in person I had recognized that
she must have some visual fixations, because she would always enclose
some shiny or brightly-colored object in each of her letters. When I was
going to meet her, I thought of bringing something shiny as a gift, but I
didn't have enough of a feel for it to know what would be appropriate.
Then during the time I spent with her, I watched her go into fits of
ecstasy while arranging colorful objects and looking at them through a
kaleidoscope. She later described the feeling as "orgasmic"; the word
had also occurred to me while watching her. (Donna is also asexual--she
was referring to the intensity of the sensation, not to some bizarre
erotic fetish.) And while she was engaging in this activity of arranging
objects and looking at them through her scope, *she kept insisting that
Kathy and I look at them too*. Of course, being autistic I'm not supposed
to understand things like this, but to me that looked suspiciously like
a person wanting to share a pleasurable activity with her friends.
And for my part, having seen her reach the peak of rapture over an empty
Coke can, and having heard her say that metallic red was her favorite
visual stimulus, I knew what would be an appropriate gift for her. I got
a red sequins-covered belt from K Mart and sent it to her: pretty tacky
from a fashion perspective, but just right for someone with her sensory
responses.
The common factor here is that the activities and interests that high-
functioning autistic adults use to share their own pleasures and to
relate to each other's experiences are often the very activities that
people try to eliminate in low-functioning autistic children: "stimming"
on sensory fixations and perseverating on subject fixations. These
autistic behaviors are generally considered to be isolating and detrimental
to social interaction. Yet here we are using them to facilitate getting
to know each other.
JS
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