Non-Sequitur ...

Eyeglasses and contacts are employed to negate a deficit.  My way is to make my aspieness work for my benefit, and in such a way that neurotypicals find valuable.  I am an electrical engineer.  My aspieness gives me the ability of focus on engineering challenges to the exclusion of all other distractions, including fatigue and hunger.  I am also insistent on having things done in specific ways, thus establishing certain protocols used throughout the industry (I am considered to be an expert in the field of RFID, for example).  My lack of interpersonal skills (e.g., "tact") means that my employers permit me to focus less on customer relations and more on finding solutions for those customers.

Take away my aspieness -- obsessive focus, compulsive orderliness, lack of sociability, goal-orientation -- and what would be left?  A flakey, messy, schmoozing underachiever, that's what.

And that is what a "cure" would do to me; it would turn me onto someone indistinguishable from the average stoner -- someone that few employers would want to have on their payroll.

To "cure" me of Asperger's Syndrome would be to make me unemployable, and therefor jobless.

Mine just causes me to think over my paintings alot.... like which subjects to work on.

I'm referring to autistic neurological deficits, not things like eyeglasses. Strawman.

Besides, eyeglasses aren't "losing your deficits". They're compensating for your deficits. Those are two very different things. I compensate for autistic deficits all the time--often by using autism-related skills. Everyone does that.

I wonder how many truly creative artists -- those who define a style of art, like Pablo Picasso and Cubism -- are or were Aspies?

I'd hate to think where the art world would be if there were a "cure" for A.S.

This post was last modified: 09-27-2010 01:48 AM by Fnord.

Ehh... they'd still have the bipolar and ADHD genetics. They'd get on OK.

This is a very strong point, Fnord!
Really good point!

But for me there is still a time for making a difference.
I hope I could find ways to improve myself so that I can do some kind of job that is more focused on interaction with people. I think that such type of interaction have more intrinsic value. I envy those who are always around people and who have broad knowledge on many topics. I would like to be a lawyer or maybe a talk show host. I think these people deal with a huge variety of things which gives them quite a good perspective on social and political issues.
Because I find such jobs and careers interesting, I want to improve myself in these areas, so that I can have such kind of exciting career.
I am 23 years old and I study law at university. I was very good in most social sciences in high school and I wrote great writing assignments. In my high school I excelled in most subjects, except, surprisingly, mathematics. I didn't have a good knowledge base in maths from primary school, and the program was extremely difficult. That's why I had C from maths and A's from most other subjects.

Despite all of this I am pretty awkward socially and have many aspie-ish traits.

What about vision correction laser surgery? This is not a compensation anymore, this is quite a cure. Yet many people undergo such a surgery.

What about transsexuals ? They are willing to completely reshape their REAL NATURAL BODIES, just in order to make their bodies fit with their feelings.
Are they killing part of themselves?

Is gender reassignment surgery kind of "cure" for transgendered people? Many of them think it is.

Many people also have to undergo the surgury a second time, too.  Plus, it is not perfect -- a person may acquire better distance vison at the expense of proximal vision.  Also, this treatment has side-effects, not the least of which is an increased risk for cataracts.

Many medical professionals are also considering the link between self-mutilation, dysmorphia and a person's desire to have his or her body altered to look like the opposite gender.

Bodily Dysmorphia

Body Dysmorphic Disorder

But transgender surgury is profitable, so I don't see it going away any time soon.

Requiem for a Dream was NOT a crappy movie!

Too implausible to take seriously. Yeah, IF there were such a 'cure', I'd like one. Not much point debating it though.

Actually, an autism cure would be more like brainwashing the transsexual to believe they were their physical gender... Changing the body is not like changing the brain. If, for example, you lost an arm today, you would still be the same person. If I gave you a lobotomy, though, you would be very different. That's part of why lobotomies are considered such an atrocity.

... or like "curing" bisexuals, homosexuals and lesbians so that they are attracted to only people of the opposite sex.  

[sarcasm]

While we're at it, let's "cure" Atheists, Moslems, Jews, Buddhists and Hindus so that they all become Christians.

Then we can start in on "curing" Liberals, Socialists, and Democrats so that they all become Conservative Republican Capitalists.

Then round up all of those who can't (or won't) be "cured", place them in ghettos, and make them earn their daily bread through assembly-line labor under hazardous conditions.

Wouldn't that be great?

[/sarcasm]

This whole concept of "curing" non-neuro-typicals to make them "normal" is sickening.

This post was last modified: 09-28-2010 05:28 PM by Fnord.

That sounds bad because of 'brainwashing'. You're pushing an angle.

I certainly have some traits that I would like toned down (see Oxytocin thread). But a cure, as described in this thread. NO. By the way, my special interests give me such happiness, I would NEVER want to be "cured" of them.

Would definitely not want to be involved in my interests less intensely.

I think the problem with this poll is that the positive benefits of such a cure are so unknown to me that I find them inconceivable. My negative and cynical view on some aspects of socialization (probably a defense to keep from crying over my lacking therein) as tends to lead me to prefer having an underdeveloped social sector.