Chris Packham: Asperger's and Me - BBC4 17 October

[Serial_Apologist]

Did anyone (apart from myself) watch this brave and, I thought, sympathetic documentary? For me it taught a lot about the condition, to which my father too was subject - myself having only found out about the existence of Asperger's from a ST article a couple of years before his death - as well as the aspects of it to which I now realise myself to be prone. Asperger's puts one at odds with many everyday aspects of life - difficulties in connecting with others versus sensory overload in normal circumstances such as crowds or loud music performances, and craving for simplification being just three among a vast potential symptomatic range. Forumites might have found it instructive, if not revelatory. Charlotte Corney, Chris's partner, came across as selfless almost to the point of sacrifice; such is love, one can only guess, and one can only wish both of them the strength of character each possesses sufficient to sustain their relationship.

Here's the link - also well worth a second viewing:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09b1zbb/chris-packham-aspergers-and-me

[Richard Tarleton]

Did anyone (apart from myself) watch this brave and, I thought, sympathetic documentary? For me it taught a lot about the condition, to which my father too was subject - myself having only found out about the existence of Asperger's from a ST article a couple of years before his death - as well as the aspects of it to which I now realise myself to be prone. Asperger's puts one at odds with many everyday aspects of life - difficulties in connecting with others versus sensory overload in normal circumstances such as crowds or loud music performances, and craving for simplification being just three among a vast potential symptomatic range. Forumites might have found it instructive, if not revelatory. Charlotte Corney, Chris's partner, came across as selfless almost to the point of sacrifice; such is love, one can only guess, and one can only wish both of them the strength of character each possesses sufficient to sustain their relationship.

Here's the link - also well worth a second viewing:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod...pergers-and-me

I did - a wonderful programme, "searingly honest" as Hugo Rifkind says in today's Times. And as for his lovely stepdaughter Megan, as Rifkind says: "And as for that graduation, I do hope he goes".

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I did - a wonderful programme, "searingly honest" as Hugo Rifkind says in today's Times. And as for his lovely stepdaughter Megan, as Rifkind says: "And as for that graduation, I do hope he goes".

It was superb. All credit to Chris for having the courage to make the programme. The reference to the American programme, to "cure" people with Aspergers, made me more than a little angry.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I did - a wonderful programme, "searingly honest" as Hugo Rifkind says in today's Times. And as for his lovely stepdaughter Megan, as Rifkind says: "And as for that graduation, I do hope he goes".

It was superb. All credit to Chris for having the courage to make the programme. The reference to the American programme, to "cure" people with Aspergers, made me more than a little angry.

Indeed - I was fuming at the telly (and the complacent doctor who was so smugly sure of himself) during that bit.

[Lat-Literal]

Did anyone (apart from myself) watch this brave and, I thought, sympathetic documentary? For me it taught a lot about the condition, to which my father too was subject - myself having only found out about the existence of Asperger's from a ST article a couple of years before his death - as well as the aspects of it to which I now realise myself to be prone. Asperger's puts one at odds with many everyday aspects of life - difficulties in connecting with others versus sensory overload in normal circumstances such as crowds or loud music performances, and craving for simplification being just three among a vast potential symptomatic range. Forumites might have found it instructive, if not revelatory. Charlotte Corney, Chris's partner, came across as selfless almost to the point of sacrifice; such is love, one can only guess, and one can only wish both of them the strength of character each possesses sufficient to sustain their relationship.

Here's the link - also well worth a second viewing:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod...pergers-and-me

An interesting programme which I have only just seen, that is, most of it as I didn't see the beginning. I agree that he was courageous in presenting the programme as he did and I don't dislike him as a person. He is also a pretty good broadcaster who is never less than fascinating. He has clearly overcome emotional difficulties to do so well professionally.

The programme did, though, raise as many questions as it answered.

First, I think it does have to be noted how many of the strands in his background would be recognizable to many other people who have not been officially diagnosed with a condition. Being brighter than many and narrowly focussed on one subject; experiencing severe bullying at school; having parents who applied pressure on their children to succeed; being the son of a man with a somewhat militaristic background who only sporadically engaged; expressing and identifying with disaffection via punk rock and art which in turn contributed to inter-generational conflict; feeling angry and occasionally destructive; not having the desire or especially the ability in formative years to verbally communicate with other people of the same age; and feeling acutely affected by loss. He is only slightly older than me. I can see many of these as fairly common themes in our generation and the couple that preceded it, at least on the substantial fringes. Quite a few are universal phenomena, not tied to the post war years. At most, I could tentatively tick three or four of the boxes. Of those I have known or of whom I have been aware as being more conventional and successful as society would view it, some would tick one or two and others seven or all eight.

From a personal perspective, I am not entirely sure that he does have huge problems with relationships even if first and foremost I accept his account matters most to him. I know of many people who have had very few or no relationships and while being in the anonymous upper mid-range intellectually and professionally they are generally characterized by their regularity, contentment and emotional balance. Regularity in relationships as any sort of concept has simultaneously been utterly redefined since the 1960s with much more coming and going before, during and after any marriage. Arguably those of us who are steadfastly single over decades, even if there are significant elements of emotional instability, more closely resemble the traditional lifelong family relationship than those in looser knit and shorter-term relationships throughout their lives, not that there can be any socio-egotistical acceptance of that notion to any degree. What did seem certain was that he was not particularly blessed with much in the way of friendship beyond perhaps professional connections but then nor had he ever actively sought them. That might partially be linked to parental background. For all of the negatives as well as the positives, my parents were principally friends to me and, in fact, it wasn't always apparent that their own interaction with each other was quite the stuff of relationships as they are ostensibly defined today. I miss them even though they are still alive and they live next door to me. In contrast, I am more judgemental on actual friendships in the past which lasted a very long time but drifted away.

The environmental aspects were interesting to me. A while ago, he was writing about, quote, being a hedonistic traveller with reference to trips to India and elsewhere with his partner at the time. My thought was, well, how does he so easily get in cars and then planes and arrive in distant cultures with anticipation. It might be that he veers towards wildlife when he gets there but that is a hell of a lot of people either to be shut in with for considerable amounts of time or simply encounter en route. However, I also know that such matters are quite complex. The feelings are not the same at one time or another, there can be bursts of being able to manage challenges even when simple routines are much more difficult, and it can help to be not only focussed on a topic of interest but to know that ultimately there is a home base where return is the equivalent to retreat. What I am also struck by is the lack of fluffiness in him. To the extent that he sees the world as brutal, his natural world is sufficiently real to be a displaced negotiation of that perspective rather than an escape. And I would regard the clinging on to a Penetration album as aligning with that outlook where in its absence there could be an accent on harmony, melody and beat.

My biggest question concerns his acquiring, late, of a DSM IV or V diagnosis and his absolute subscribing to it as characterising his personal identity. Why? It seems the very essence of a conformity that in many ways waters down the strong sense of individuality. Tentatively, I would suggest that it represents a maturing given his age, his media standing and his social difficulties in adolescence that may not, as stated, extend in as pronounced a way as he feels into the area of inter-personal relationships. I say this as someone who is more child than adult but more adult than adolescent in my long-term identity. In view of the latter point, I am somewhat sceptical of these manuals which are faddish with elements of authoritarianism in their influence. That is certainly true, for example, of their significant shifts on sexuality. Hans Asperger was very much a 20th Century creature. Lorna Wing who didn't popularize his name by associating it with a condition until 1981 did so in the context of her own professional career interests and having a daughter with emotional difficulties which were not until then sympathetically classified. All very top down. I just wonder, actually, about St Cuthbert who we were told in another programme this week lived on a tiny Northumbrian island in isolation and communicated directly only with birds and animals. While he stood to pray on a beach “two otters bounded out of the water, stretched themselves out before him, warmed his feet with their breath, and tried to dry him with their fur. They finished, received his blessing, and slipped back to their watery home”. Not only intelligent as a hermit but the leader of a cult which had the political power of converting many people, he was not diagnosed with Aspergers but society then had a different combination of ills.

Footnote: Autism itself emerged as a concept in the late 1930s and the early 1940s. There are questions around the Viennese Dr Asperger and his politics - the "Was he a Nazi?" question ("authoritative" classification helped order "problem people" but, of course, one might say that an inability on the part of anyone to assimilate in Nazi Germany was the epitome of great psychological health) - while of the two significant figures in autism per se, American but of European roots, Bettelheim was a dark sort of fraud and Kanner shifted his academic conclusions from certain positions to others that were precisely the opposite without a blink. In that sense, the latter pre-dated Spitzer who was just as changeable - and influential - on same sex relations. Having almost single-handedly removed those as a mental illness from the US diagnostic manual, he much later and when close to his death positively advocated conversion therapy, thereby upsetting huge numbers of people who were originally acolytes. What is extraordinary in many of these areas is the power that one or two men managed to wield across entire populations. They were Trump like in that sense. Such is the way when people want someone to give them answers and everyone else seems uninterested or clueless. That the processes occurred is no doubt for the best but it is always important to know and remember their origins. What has to be factored in - but rarely is - are the egos of those who set them in train. Tools and enlightenment are useful and in a civilised society a "no-brainer". An almost Biblical application is generally not so.