Aspies For Freedom

Asperger's Syndrome: A Special Report (Part One of Two)

“Let’s not use the word ‘cure’ if you don’t mind… When you talk about cure you imply that we’re broken. I don’t feel broken.” So says Liane Holliday Willey, a woman who not so long ago would have been described as a “victim” of Asperger’s Syndrome. It’s been more than 60 years since the Austrian doctor Hans Asperger identified the condition that bears his name, but it has only been in the past decade or so that we have begun to understand its broader implications. Asperger’s Syndrome may be a part of the autistic spectrum, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that an “Aspie” can’t function in the world.

In this, the first in a two-part special report on Asperger’s Syndrome, Dr. Peter Kramer talks with Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen, a researcher at Cambridge University, on recent advances in recognizing the condition. We meet Dr. Michael Fitzgerald of Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, a child psychiatrist who’s made quite a stir diagnosing Asperger’s Syndrome among the dead. Then, in a panel discussion, three adults – Liane Holliday Willey, Stephen Shore, and Michael John Carley – talk about growing up as loners with Asperger’s. Now they celebrate their membership in the community of “Aspies.” Finally, in a commentary, Dr. Arthur Caplan, head of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, asks, “If you could go back in time and stop the birth of the world’s most famous nerd, would you have done so?”
http://store.yahoo.com/lcmedia/assypt.html


It sounds interesting, but I wouldn't actually spend money on it.

Yet if you read willey's books. She constantly talks about herself as a victim. She "HOPES" that her daughter dont hate her too much. she "HOPES" that they will love her any way. she "HOPES" they listen.

Anyone else read her books and get the same feel???

Love your sig! :lol:

I have never read her books, but if she is saying 'hope this and hope that', at least its more positive than saying "I worry, I dread".

That, plus she refers to herself as having "grown out" of AS. How can she speak like she represents everyone with AS when at the same time she seems to imply that those who haven't 'got better', are defective? (SHE isn't defective she says, but then SHE got better)

Grown out of? Like a pair of shoes on a kid? What is she thinking??

Is it really what she is thinking?? but really what she is making???

goes for carly and shore. Carley is head of grasp a 75K a year position
does real non-NT autism advocay really require that?

Liane Holiday-Willey has never been officially diagnosed with AS. When her daughter was diagnosed, she concluded that it also explained her problems, and has identified herself as an Aspie ever since. And she promptly wrote two books about her experiences. And yes, she does say that her AS is getting better as she gets older.

First of all, after reading her first book, "Pretending to be normal", I have long concluded that her AS must be very mild in comparison to mine, if she truly has it.

Personally, I think that she may have ADHD with some AS traits, rather than really being an Aspie.

And I agree with Maxine Aston on this point (I don't agree with everything she says), that anybody who gets 'cured' of AS never had it to begin with.

After first learning of AS, and wanting to be able to identify with another woman with AS, I bought Liane Willey's first book last year in March (a month after I first found out there was such a thing as AS). And even though I could identify with some of her experiences (literal mindedness, for instance, and constantly getting lost), I found I didn't have too much in common with her.

What I disliked most was, that my husband read her book, and would be saying things like: "How come Liane can do..........and you can't?" And when reading about her getting 'better' with age, telling me that it should give me 'hope' for the future, because I might be cured as well!

And because Liane's 'AS symptoms' are so vague, a friend of mine, who I now believe definitely doesn't have AS, was even able to identify with her, and steadfastly claims she 'had' AS, but has gotten better! This lady says that when she was exorcised of demons she was cured of AS. I am glad my husband hasn't heard of that (and I certainly won't tell him), because otherwise he might drag me to that place, to be 'delivered' of the demons that cause me to have AS.

Tony Attwood did diagnose "residual" AS which means "some traits but we can't tell any more".

Most of the things she fobs off as "typical AS" are far more OCD than anything (the symmetry stuff etc.).

"This lady says that when she was exorcised of demons she was cured of AS."

*shudder* :shock:

Definetely don't let your husband approach you with anything like that, call the police or whatever you have to do, those things can be fatal.

Actually, I do believe in demons, and I believe that people can be demon possessed. But I definitely don't believe that AS is a result of being possessed by demons. And I know I am not demon possessed! Otherwise I would also have to believe that my father, three of my six brothers and my sisters would be possessed by demons (and that from the time all of us were born - right).

So, maybe my friend actually was exorcised of demons, I don't know. But she never did have AS, and therefore this exorcism didn't fix it. It's ridiculous. I won't talk with her about AS any more (meaning, I don't talk to her much now), because she is adamant that she had it and got cured.

Anyhow, my husband can't make me do anything, so don't worry.