[readthenotes1]

"Autistic individuals are, on average, more consistent, less biased, and more rational than non-autistic individuals in a variety of contexts. (We use identity-first language, eg, ‘Autistic people’, as it is preferred by many people on the autism spectrum.)"

Hmmm. What are they implying by that parenthetical comment placement?

[zozbot234]

There's quite a bit of politicking in the autism movement over whether one should preferentially say 'people with autism' or 'autistic people'. The former (formally called "person-first language") is occasionally objected to because it frames 'autism' as a disease (compare 'people with cancer') as opposed to a sort of plausibly-benign divergence in cognition. As one might expect with such matters, there are reasonable arguments for either choice.

[zwkrt]

In psychology and social services there is a push to use terms like “person with Autism” or “person with autistic traits” as opposed to “autistic person” as many people seem to enjoy not being primarily labeled by something that only makes up a small part of their personality and an even smaller part of their personhood.

Think of it like primitive vs value types in Java. ‘int a = 7; Integer b = 7’

“a” is 7, but “b” just has a pointer to 7.

—- I guess autistic people must not mind or even prefer to identify in this way, but it can really help in a therapeutic setting not to call someone “a borderline woman” or “a psychotic woman” because for better or worse labeling someone as mentally unhealthy is colloquially tantamount to an insult.

[zepto]

The point here is that autistic people who prefer this term don’t think it has anything to do with mental health or disease, and do think it’s a fundamental aspect of who they are, which can’t be separated.