Deconstructing Neurelitism by Mark Foster, Ph.D.

Human Rights Month with Human Rights Day and International Human Solidarity Day

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 19:56:00 GMT

I just published the following on the League to Fight Neurelitism site:

For Immediate Release

In commemoration of the seminal United Nations document, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The League to Fight Neurelitism, in a spirit of like-mindedness with many others throughout the world, recognizes each month of December as Human Rights Month. Within that month, the League observes the tenth, the anniversary of the Declaration, as United Nations Human Rights Day and the twentieth, through a focus on combatting global poverty, as United Nations International Human Solidarity Day.

At a time when many persons are searching for an enlightened secular alternative to holidays such as Christmas and Channukah, while others remain discouraged by the pervasive and crass materialism of that time of year, Human Rights Month, Human Rights Day, and International Human Solidarity Day remind us of important socially designated human rights, while giving us the opportunity to shift the centers of our thought and attention to those individuals, including autistics, whose civil and other human rights are violated regularly and systematically.

Respectfully submitted,

Mark A. Foster, Ph.D.
Founding Director,
The League to Fight Neurelitism

URL: http://humanrights.neurelitism.com

Moved

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 01:35:22 GMT

I have moved my blog to this site.

Utopia

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 23:54:43 GMT

Sociologist Karl Mannheim distinguished between ideology and utopia (which is roughly equivalent to the distinction Marx made between false consciousness and class consciousness). The ideology, in this framework, is the "establishment" belief system (dating myself here) supported by social and cultural elites. The utopia is the shared belief system of the oppressed or, to use Franz Fanon's famous term, les damnés de la terre (the wretched of the earth).

Personally, I see neurodiversity, in Mannheim's context, as a utopia worth striving for.

Autism Conference

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 03:21:53 GMT

The Johnson County Community College autism conference ended on Friday. Among the speakers were Stephen Shore (who delivered the plenary address), Ari Ne'eman (president of the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network), and Scott Robertson (the vice-president). All three of these speakers did an excellent job.

I was among those persons on the autism spectrum featured on a video. After the showing, a few of us who were present at the conference formed a panel. I was the moderator. The questions were all interesting and respectful.

Placing many of the parents of autistic children (the so-called "curebees") with neurodiversity self-advocates is always potentially explosive. Fortunately, there were no problems until the very end.

As the conference was concluding, a couple of parents challenged the self-advocacy position. It was a bit like a situation where, hypothetically, the parents of adoptive children of color would assert their right to speak for persons of color, even to disagree with some or most adults of color, purely by virtue of parenting.

Rearranging Websites

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:10:10 GMT

I just created a second self-advocacy website. What I did, essentially, was to move my personal self-advocacy, including my autobiography, onto a separate site and to leave everything else on the original site. Here is how I have arranged it:

1. neurelitism.com: The League to Fight Neurelitism

2. markfoster.name: my personal self-advocacy

3. markfoster.me: my Asperger's coaching and lecturing

4. markfoster.net: links to all 23 of my websites

Neurodiversity

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 03:58:36 GMT

Here is an excellent post on neurodiversity which largely expresses my own sentiments. Neurodiversity includes everyone:

http://thiswayoflife.org/blog/?p=262

Autistics, and many others, may be neurodivergent (or neuratypical), but we are all neurodiverse.

Humor

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:53:07 GMT

I came across this posting on the web, and thought it was quite humorous. And you thought we really didn't know about the DSM-V?

Bliss

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 04:34:08 GMT

I am not exactly certain why, but I have been feeling extraordinary well lately. Objectively, there is no clear reason I can ascertain for my positive feelings, and perhaps I should simply be grateful without attempting to analyze it (fat chance).

Now, I am not usually in an especially bad mood anyway. Thankfully, I do not have a mood disorder, such as bipolar syndrome. However, I have rarely felt the kind of sustained feelings of joy, even bliss, which I have experienced over the last couple of months.

One possibility may be that, subjectively, I now realize that, in light of my diagnosis last year. my life experiences finally make sense. Over the last 15 years or so, I have also come to define myself in terms of my numerous domains and websites, all connected through The MarkFoster.NETwork, and, with the recent development of my League to Fight Neurelitism, the missing tile in my Internet mosaic has finally been inserted.

Asperger's Autism and Nonverbal Learning Disorder

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 01:46:45 GMT

The term autism spectrum is still an inexact term. It is not used consistently.

The problem is that Asperger's and NLD were developed within separate clinical communities. Eventually, people began to realize that the two diagnoses were extremely similar (if not the same neurodivergent condition viewed from different perspectives).

If I wanted to nitpick, I could probably say that I am closer to NLD in some ways and closer to Asperger's autism in others. "Special interests," which have always dominated my life, is a part of the Asperger's diagnosis, but not of the NLD diagnosis. On the other hand, I am much more of a verbal than a visual thinker, which would place me closer to NLD than to Asperger's.

I really tend to agree with David Dinklage that distinguishing between the two conditions is splitting hairs. For instance, one could list the symptoms which both categories have in common and then refer to the (very few) differences as optional.

Lost another friend

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 04:00:29 GMT

I am very open about my aspie autism, and I have found my candidness to be both liberating and exhilarating. I freely discuss my experiences as an autistic man on the web, including on this blog, and I use my full name in doing so. I also discuss my autism with all of my students.

However, this past week, I decided to phone an old friend of mine. We have known each other for around 28 years. Although he lives in Washington, D.C., and I am in Kansas, we have continued to keep in touch. After I told him about my autism, and invited him to read my autobiography, he completely rejected me. He began criticizing me for situations, one after the other, which occurred 25 years ago. When I expressed sympathy for his poor communication with his sister, he accused me of attempting to impose my value system upon him.

As is usual with me, I did not pick up on his apparent intentions until I began reflecting on them after the conversation. During the phone call, I responded rationally to everything he said, never realizing that he was trying to brush me off. It has happened to me before, though well before my diagnosis as an aspie autistic, but, in social encounters, I seem to have difficulty learning from past experiences.

I really liked this fellow. He was someone with whom I could always talk openly, and vice-versa.