The term Autism is as meaningless and vague as the term Hysteria in times of Froid. There is a whole scale of ASDs, which have very different causes and symptom

The term Autism is as meaningless and vague as the term Hysteria in times of Froid. There is a whole scale of ASDs, which have very different causes and symptoms and hardly could be fit in a single oversimplified category. Especially when used in media. Some causes are "environmental" and of personal experiences, like childhood traumas or, which is the most common scenario, lack of proper treatment by parents and abusing by others as "being stupid". These conditions could be successfully treated by various CBTs, including those based oon "overcoming ignorance", to which I am myself a living proof. But there are also various neurological disorders which cannot be lifted by mere CBTs. So, the meme of autism as in characters like Rocky or Travis (these are the most "realistic" ones) or modern memes of autistic techies or hackers (with a very few well-known exceptions) are, well, a stupid memes. Life of an ordinary person with Aspergers (as they call us) is by no means a movie. It is just a severe condition of confusion, frustration and pain. Unfortunately, modern media are made out of memes because common folks cannot grasp the subtleties of reality, which is indeed a not easy task. So, non-neuroligical condition changed by a improvised CBT is not such a great news. These things happen routinely and quetly in the rest of the world.