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That's reasonable. I was pretty upset when I started writing the piece, and feel more rational now. However, by "aspie" I specifically mean someone detached fr

That's reasonable. I was pretty upset when I started writing the piece, and feel more rational now. However, by "aspie" I specifically mean someone detached from emotion and any sense of duty towards other people. Is there a better word you would suggest I could use?

maxerickson 10y ago
Well, "detached from emotion and any sense of duty towards other people" would directly be an improvement if that is what you specifically mean.
- aestetix 10y ago
  Updated! Thanks for the suggestion!
nibs 10y ago
People with Aspergers often have to turn off emotions because they are too intense, the rationality is a coping mechanism. People perceive a lack of emotion, but really it is just that it is easier to view the world as rational than it is to cope with accepting the irrationality. I say this with three psychiatrist-diagnosed (pre DSM revision) "Aspies" in my immediate family. Feeling emotions, feeling empathy and having a sense of duty towards others are three different things. Lacking emotions would probably be considered an affective disorder or unipolar depression. Lacking empathy can be antisocial personality disorder or other personality disorders at the most extreme end. And lacking a sense of duty towards others could be anything really. I have found that Aspies actually want to help the world, and that the hard part is actually doing the interfacing with the world. Phone calls with neutrotypical people, pretending to be extroverted enough to keep a job, trying to explain things and take people's fear response into consideration without just reducing it to a question of binaries and logic. That is the hard part.
dragonwriter 10y ago
> However, by "aspie" I specifically mean someone detached from emotion and any sense of duty towards other people. Is there a better word you would suggest I could use? "People detached from emotion and any sense of duty toward other people" -- not every idea has a good single-word term. Of course, that would still be an improper mass insult in the context in which it was used, but at least it wouldn't be using a slur for people with a particular mental health diagnosis.

maxerickson 10y ago

Well, "detached from emotion and any sense of duty towards other people" would directly be an improvement if that is what you specifically mean.

aestetix 10y ago
Updated! Thanks for the suggestion!

nibs 10y ago

People with Aspergers often have to turn off emotions because they are too intense, the rationality is a coping mechanism. People perceive a lack of emotion, but really it is just that it is easier to view the world as rational than it is to cope with accepting the irrationality. I say this with three psychiatrist-diagnosed (pre DSM revision) "Aspies" in my immediate family. Feeling emotions, feeling empathy and having a sense of duty towards others are three different things. Lacking emotions would probably be considered an affective disorder or unipolar depression. Lacking empathy can be antisocial personality disorder or other personality disorders at the most extreme end. And lacking a sense of duty towards others could be anything really. I have found that Aspies actually want to help the world, and that the hard part is actually doing the interfacing with the world. Phone calls with neutrotypical people, pretending to be extroverted enough to keep a job, trying to explain things and take people's fear response into consideration without just reducing it to a question of binaries and logic. That is the hard part.

dragonwriter 10y ago

> However, by "aspie" I specifically mean someone detached from emotion and any sense of duty towards other people. Is there a better word you would suggest I could use? "People detached from emotion and any sense of duty toward other people" -- not every idea has a good single-word term. Of course, that would still be an improper mass insult in the context in which it was used, but at least it wouldn't be using a slur for people with a particular mental health diagnosis.