Autism in the past

[unperson]

I also think that societal norms for conformity have relaxed some. In the 50s and 60s, the baby boomer generation was so large that peer pressure to conform was overwhelming. Everyone had to be doing the same thing all the time. I think that's what led to the wild fads that the baby boomers all embraced - the insanely popular dance trends of the 50s, the drug-fueled 60s, the British Invasion, etc.

Anyone who didn't fit in was ostracized. Families went so far as to hide any odd family members from society, to avoid the "shame" of it.

20 years ago, I worked with a man from Morocco. He said that when he came to America, he was surprised at how many disabled people he saw. Then he realized that we let them out and make public areas handicapped-accessible, and in Morocco, they hide them.

I think we've only started to become more accepting of outliers in the last 10 years or so. Emphasis on started - we're not a perfect society yet, but there have been some good steps taken forward. The ADA was a good step forward. Sympathetic characters with autism or other conditions in the media help, too. Anti-bullying campaigns help. Anti-racism campaigns help. We still have a long way to go.

Interesting about the overinfluence of boomers, it's a strange phenomenon to have one overwhelmingly large peer group. My siblings are boomers but I'm not, came a little too late.

 

[Au Naturel]

@Kaspieman claims that "life would have been on one level hell for people with Asperger's and Autism." Was that the case for him? Was he lobotomized and shocked for nothing more than A.S.D?

An autistic person who acted out or got combative could well have. Once the system had you pegged as non compis mentis, and they declared you a danger to yourself and others, they could pretty much do what they want with you. Through most of the 20th-century autism was usually simply written off as schizophrenia or mental retardation, unknown cause.

I don't think Einstein had that set of traits. They did think he was mentally retarded though. He learned to speak very late in childhood.

 

[Au Naturel]

Anything like this is historical speculation, as an amateur historian I think it's a discussion worth having... Simply put, you can look at general personality traits and mannerisms of well known historical people (as history describes them), and take an educated guess, but nothing is entirely certain of course.

Don't forget that it's only in recent history that we even properly diagnosed things like Asperger's, Autism, mental illnesses, etc...

As a more recent example, one term came out of The Great War - shell shock, describing how some of the soldiers who came home had trouble coping... Fast forward to more recent times and we have a better term for it - PTSD - which is a very real thing that is taken more seriously...

And in WWII the term for it was combat fatigue.

There are still mental health professionals who refuse the ASD diagnosis for women. And you still have to get to one before you can be diagnosed. People in underserved areas (and those who don't believe in psychiatry) still never get diagnosed. They may end up in prison or living on the streets with an "undefined mental illness."

 

[Myrtonos]

One thing that would have happened is people who meet today's diagnostic criteria getting corporally punished for not taking orders, the reasons for them being withheld from them. That's right, people (especially men)* not on the spectrum, corporally punishing those people for not doing what they are told instead of giving them the reasons. I wonder if that might be why so many people came to believe that corporal punishment was wrong and it has come to be outlawed.
I often wish I could use it against neurotypicals (mostly men) who stubbornly refuse to take orders even with a logical reason.

*These people can seem quite tough minded and blunt for neurotypicals.

 

[Aspychata]

Think my parents were very confused about me. l was perfectly content to stay home with zero friends. My mom didn't want the stigma of anything off about us but l think my brother may also have some qualities of autism.

 

[unperson]

Childhood schizophrenia would have been the most likely dx (already mentioned by another poster) in my youth, but my parents didn't want to spend money (or time) on 'high needs' stuff - mum was crazy anyway, she needed a shrink more than me (MPD/DID), so one got put in skewl and eventually shuffled off to the 'also ran' ranks. meh. thanks for nuffin!