The word "cousin"

[ancusmitis]

I remember back in 04 or 05 when I joined AFF we had a word, "cousin," for someone who had a) autistic traits or b) could understand autistic people but for whom diagnosis would have been inappropriate. I don't know what happened to this word. I haven't seen anyone use it in years.

There was also the term "cousin condition" that included ADHD and tourette's, probably since both can make relationships difficult with NT's. Tourette's is technically a movement disorder i think, and some of the motor tics can resemble stimming. ADHD can make it hard to pay attention to conversations and disturbs social relatedness that way. I remember arguments about whether or not it should include schizophrenia. The term "autism" originally came out of schizophrenia, and referred at first to the loss of sociability and/or communication sometime seen in schizophrenia; autism was distinguished from schizophrenia by: 1) lack of psychotic symptoms and 2) presence from a very young age if not birth. Schizophrenia was a good candidate for a cousin condition; I think most of the controversy came from people's attitudes towards psychosis.

Regardless, the term "cousin condition" depended on the meaning of "cousin," especially definition b. The meaning was not so controversial, but somewhere along the way the term itself seems to have disappeared. Does anyone know what happened to it?

 

[tree]

ancusmitis

I had not heard anyone use the word cousin that way until
I saw your post. Apparently the word is in use, one way or
another, in some circles.

"...the term "cousin" has been used within ANI to refer to a non-autistic person who has some other significant social and communication abnormalities that render him or her significantly "autistic-like." The broader term "AC," meaning "autistics and cousins," emerged soon afterward."
http://www.autreat.com/History_of_ANI.html

"Autistics and Cousins (AC) — a cover term including aspies, auties, and their "cousins", i.e. people with some autistic traits but no formal diagnosis"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociological_and_cultural_aspects_of_autism

 

[Southern Discomfort]

I've never heard of the term before but if I had to guess is that the term "neurodiversity" replaced it because if you look up Tourette's, ADHD, schizophrenia, autism and numerous others you'll notice that they're all neurological conditions.