Opps spelling...

I'd agree with that…its really does seem to make sense. But physical evidence appears to be scant and genetic evidence inconclusive.

Opps...there goes my dyslexia again.

Should have read:

I'd agree with that…its really does seem to make sense. But the physical evidence appears to be scant and genetic evidence inconclusive.

This is a link to the most recent, reliable research on Human- Neanderthal interbreeding I could discover.

http://www.bris.ac.uk/researchreview/200...76748.html

What do schizophrenia and autism have in common? Not a lot--if anything they’re opposites:- Schizophrenia being concerned with fantasy and meaning; Autism being concerning with literal reality and knowledge. But they do have one thing in common--they both seem to enhance creativity.


Concerning creativity and autism.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3766697.stm

Concerning creativity and schizophrenia.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg18324571.900

Two types of creativity:-

Religious creativity

Hallucinations, magical and superstitious beliefs, feelings of  ‘profound meaning’ even revelation are all experienced by the schizoptypical personality type. I feel that the fantasy making tendencies found in schizophrenia may have sparked the emergence of  religious creativity as expressed through art.


But I also feel that perhaps scientific orientated creativity may have come later--possibly as a result of the introduction of Neanderthal traits.

When we look at the evidence of prehistory:-although there was much creative innovation, true scientific thinking seems to be lacking in the repertoire of early man. All creative activity seems instead to be centred around spirituality.

Scientific creativity

It has been said that aspies are 'natural scientists'. Our ability to specialise and hyper-focus on specific areas of interest. To gatherer knowledge--to construct theories and models to explain how the world works. To see the world with literal clarity. Perhaps we’ve moved from a generalised religious creativity to a specialised scientific creativity because of Neanderthal influences.  


Finally, many people have noted that Europeans see the world ’scientifically’ while Asians view it ‘spiritually‘. I’ve read this in several books--but none have been able to explain why. Maybe Human-Neanderthal explain these cultural differences.

Sorry if I'm duplicating here, but I wanted to add that I first heard about this Neanderthal theory in Jen Birch's book, Congratulations!  It's Asperger Syndrome.  I have not read the original link posted here, but I REALLY liked this theory as soon as I read about it in this book.

I also wanted to comment on Batman's creativity post.  It has always irked me that one of the diagnostic criteria for autism includes some badly worded phrase that means we lack creativity.  Every time I read such nonsense I am compelled to begin to list all of the amazing acts of creativity attributed to autistics, from art and literature all the way through to science and math.  Rigid thinking and creativity are not opposites.  Social conformity is the opposite of creativity, if you ask me.  It just reminds me of the "hypocritical ad hominem," accusing the other person of not being able to do what you cannot do yourself, but claim you can, or accusing the other person of doing publicly the very same thing you are doing privately, and getting away with it.  (Sorry no examples come to mind.)

Well said jewelie--I don't think "Rigid thinking and creativity" are opposites either.

To be a good scientist requires both rigid literal thinking and creativity.

He uses rigid logic to examine reality to find facts; and then creativity is used to put ‘flesh on the bones’ of  his knowledge; he imagines the possibilities and ’creates’ theories and models to explain the data.

While science and religion could be seen as opposites--science and art are certainly not.  

Indeed science would not exist without art. Without creative imagination we would have not science only a collection of unconnected, disjointed meaningless facts.

Yes Jewelie, I was referring to a lot of those articles/statements written about AS which (personally) strike me to be somewhat true:  a lack of spontaneous ability in expression of self... the articles I refer to call this "lack of social imagination."  Social imagination is one "type" of imagination, and there is a bridge between imagination and creativity... to some extent.

Furthermore, I feel that a lot of Aspergians have some degree of difficulty with abstract thinking (myself included... reading between the lines in fiction/poetry is very difficult for me.)   To me, this can be interpreted as either a lack of creativity (which those articles/diagnostic criteria mention), or a simple "cognitive roadblock" that NTs aren't familiar with.  To me, still, this is a deficiency.

And yet... Perhaps it is the fact that we have this "abstractification difficulty," paradoxically, that makes us so creative.  We live without the convenient NT filter, the "automatic template" that everyone seems to have access to... except for those with AS.

So, those with AS have to find meaning and order manually, and consider everything mindfully...  every thought/item/concept in our world is considered separately, and compared to everything else.  One can see how this "mindful integration" can lead to some very unique interpretations... hence, potential for great creativity.

In summary, I do agree that Aspies can have extraordinary/unusual creativity, and this is one of our greatest strengths.  But at the same time, I think that problems with abstract/symbolic thinking can be considered a kind of "detractor" of creativity in some ways...  and this very problem has stifled my attempts at creative expression, time and time again.

I think you made a very good point there Batman55:-Aspie’s do appear to have problems with symbolic thinking--which detracts from our ability to function creatively.

I find artistic symbolism very hard to understand.

I can draw and paint what I see--reproduce a stylised version of the reality. Or I can splash paint on to a canvas making some attractive forms and free-flowing coloured patterns--which is sort of like abstract art.

But when it comes to expressing meaning through symbol and metaphor I’m somewhat at a loss.

Yes, and this "over-literalism" and this "abstract-thinking problem" doesn't mean we lack creativity..  it is clear that Aspies can be very creative... but it does indicate a specific problem that often affects certain kinds of creative thinking, across the board.

Especially the generalized concept of spontaneity seems to be affected by AS, but it seems we make up for this in other ways... by being mindful and looking for things that others tend to skip over, without thinking.  It's been said those with AS "see things that others don't see"... I am inclined to believe it.

I haven't read this book. What does it say about the Neanderthal theory? At least the book is written after I invented the Neanderthal theory in 2001.

No, on the contrary. Evidence from raw material movements in Hs and Hn clearly suggests that Hs had larger social networks. These questions have also been in Aspie-quiz, and the preference for a large social network is an NT trait. As for tolerance, yes, in a way, Hn where more tolerant (they quite likely lacked we-them-thinking and all that follows from this). OTOH, they didn't socialize at all with strangers other than as mate exchange. So it really depends on what one wants to include into tolerance.

Batman, again, fabulous thoughts.  Thank you for sharing.  Your ideas of "automatic template" and "mindful integration" are very powerful.

There's an entire chapter at the end on the Neanderthal theory.  I can't paraphrase it for you, but it could easily be browsed at your local bookstore.

You may have invented the theory in 2001, but that doesn't mean others haven't invented it as well.  I thought I invented/discovered the Pareto Principle from my library work, but discovered that others had discovered the same thing long before I did.  Which doesn't take away from my discovery, but does cloud the credit issue!
"Great minds think alike."

OK, thanks. I'll read the book just to see if she has some novel ideas.

Yeah. I don't mind other people inventing this idea as long as they haven't extensively copied my own ideas without giving credit. I'll just read it to find out if it contains novel ideas or not.

Anyone’s welcome to steel my ideas--I don’t mind--in fact I’d feel honoured if you did lol.