Carrying on with the idea of Allism as a neurotype with a short spike for actuarial matters, and of Allistic psychology as almost exclusively a matter of the self and not society, I wish to extrapolate something, specifically that we should see problematic personality types along a different vector than the psychology of individuals.
I will need to start with the dictionaries and definitions – it does sound like “sociopathy,” already draws this distinction from psychopathy, I need to check that, plus we’ll have to do Autism/Allism again. Alphabetically, I suppose.
Allism
– this is understood to be the majority or “normal,” neurotype, often interchangeable with “neurotypical,” but “Allism,” has etymology, “Allo,” is from the Greek for “Other,” and I believe the inference is that it describes a mind that connects with and is concerned with others, with the people around us, but I don’t think we have a list of Allistic traits as such, a definition as such, it is most often explained simply as the absence of, or opposite of Autism.
If there is any list of traits and features, it is most often gleaned through the looking glass, approved Allistic traits are to be found in their pathologized mirror traits among the neurodivergent, such as the name shows, “Autistic,” means self defined or involved, so “Allistic,” means connected, more of a group orientation.
Just Me:
For my part, I have extrapolated things already, and I have theories about Allism in and of itself, I have spent my life trying to understand them, I never knew what I was, but I guess I always knew I wasn’t one of them. For me, Allism is a version of humanity with a “specific set of skills,” yes, meant exactly like the action movie meant it, Allism is humankind’s warrior neurotype, and war is a group activity.
While peace looks more like parallel play.
Autism
– ha, I only have my own, I’m having a hard time writing down the usual definition for you. “Aut,” is the Greek for self, as in automatic and autonomous, so Autistic is “self –“ self directed, surely self-stimulation created this meme, self involved, in the simplest terms, we don’t listen and do what we’re told, we think we’re supposed to listen to our own minds or something, at least this is why we’re a problem and a thing, we’re not much good in a group project.
There are a lot of health problems that seem to come with it, and they are part of the working definition of Autism, notably verbalization and sensory issues, and as the brain runs the body, that does seem to be a part of one’s neurotype.
Just Me:
For my part, I need to turn the entire edifice upside down and say, yes, “a part of one’s neurotype,” but that this statement in not directional, and that the presence of much variance does not make a type, rather that that the adherence to a specific set of traits is what makes a type, and so Autism is less of a specific “type,” than Allism is, that rather perhaps what we call “Autism,” is many types, perhaps the label “Autism,” or maybe “neurodivergence” in general is the whole gene pool and Allism is the emergent, specific, purpose built “type.” With a rather obvious purpose, mentioned above. A purpose that I would hope humanity will some day abandon.
OK, I’d better crack open a dictionary for these Allistic psychology terms, my intuition is probably wrong.
Psychopathy
– from the N.I.H (USA):
“Psychopathy is a neuropsychiatric disorder marked by deficient emotional responses, lack of empathy, and poor behavioral controls, commonly resulting in persistent antisocial deviance and criminal behavior.”
– from somewhere high on Google’s list, place called PsychopathyIs:
“Psychopathy (sai · kaa · puh · thee) is a common mental disorder. It is characterized by personality traits that include reduced empathy and remorse, a bold and daring personality, and difficulty inhibiting behaviors.
People with psychopathy may deceive, manipulate, exploit, threaten, steal from, or physically harm others. At the same time, they may seem outwardly friendly and well adjusted. This ‘mask of sanity,’ described in the quote above, can make psychopathic people very hard to identify.
Psychopathic traits vary across the population from mild to extreme. In other words, psychopathy is a spectrum disorder, like other well-known spectrum disorders such as autism and anxiety. Severe psychopathy can cause significant impairment and affects approximately 1% of children and adults in the United States today.”
– from Psychology Today (and Good Lord, they’re catty):
“Psychopathy is a condition characterized by the absence of empathy and the blunting of other affective states. Callousness, detachment, and a lack of empathy enable psychopaths to be highly manipulative. Nevertheless, psychopathy is among the most difficult disorders to spot.
Psychopaths can appear normal, even charming. Underneath, they lack any semblance of conscience. Their antisocial nature inclines them often (but by no means always) to criminality.
Just Me:
– I’ll summarize: perhaps what makes it not the majority type is that psychopaths apparently don’t let public opinion bother them or change their behaviour, one might almost apply the “Aut,” syllable to that, but again, for me, I think that just makes them not, or less Allistic, going with what other people think seems to be an Allistic feature.
As an Autist, I clench at the word “empathy,” but perhaps it’s appropriate for psychopathy to say it isn’t there or is attenuated. For my “just me,” section, I will say that this language is all psychological and ahistorical, or asociological, I mean it refers to people in the present tense, people are used, people are hurt – as often with what I think of as Allistic psychology, there is no attention paid to the future, to the ongoing cause and effect, the reverberations of this hurt through time, I mean, a classic movie psychopath doesn’t worry about the pain the knife causes the victim, and this is the psychological definition – but he doesn’t worry about the future either, about the altered lives that didn’t end, about his victim’s children, he doesn’t worry about generally adding to the misery of humanity and bringing the next apocalyptic reset a little closer. I think?
There’s some of my Antisocialization Theory in there, that you can’t just keep adding to the misery forever, that there is a cycle to it, a point of critical mass and an explosion, or implosion, a reset, the Antisocialization Jubilee like a world war or a total collapse. An actuarial idea, I suppose.
The classic psycho lacks empathy AND actuarial sense, maybe? That ought to have stopped him too. The two things are surely related and connected, and mostly move through the world together . . . or not?
One may be rarer than the other, in some sense perhaps instead they exist in inverse proportion, even, perhaps me and my friends can be tight and caring about one another as we wage war on the world, then we’d have empathy and not be psychopaths, pass for “normal,” and lack only the actuarial empathy – and destroy the world?
But perhaps I digress and I’m so far behind I only think I’m leading. Back to the dictionary.
Sociopathy –
OK, I’m out of date, it’s called Antisocial Personality Disorder now – but maybe only the name has been updated, it just sounds like “psychopathy, only just the bad kind,” more impulsivity, more violence, less disguise. The following excerpts are a little contradictory, it seems a good definition is still a matter of debate.
– from the Mayo Clinic:
“Antisocial personality disorder, sometimes called sociopathy, is a mental health condition in which a person consistently shows no regard for right and wrong and ignores the rights and feelings of others. People with antisocial personality disorder tend to purposely make others angry or upset and manipulate or treat others harshly or with cruel indifference. They lack remorse or do not regret their behavior.
People with antisocial personality disorder often violate the law, becoming criminals. They may lie, behave violently or impulsively, and have problems with drug and alcohol use. They have difficulty consistently meeting responsibilities related to family, work or school.”
– from Psychology Today (and again . . . bitchy, I guess, LOL):
“Sociopathy refers to a pattern of antisocial behaviors and attitudes, including manipulation, deceit, aggression, and a lack of empathy for others. Sociopathy is a non-diagnostic term, and it is not synonymous with “psychopathy,” though the overlap leads to frequent confusion. Sociopaths may or may not break the law, but by exploiting and manipulating others, they violate the trust that the human enterprise runs on.”
Just Me:
For my two cents’ worth, again, it’s all present tense, clearly this person doesn’t seem to be worried about what sort of world they are creating with their behaviour, and . . . I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, or maybe me and others of my type, but the speaker, the folks telling me about it don’t address the world of tomorrow either, the way psychology reads to me, mainstream psychology, Allistic psychology only ever sounds like a personal matter, interpersonal at most . . . I’m sorry, I know I’m not landing this thought, but let’s leave it there for a moment. If I can tie the whole thing off, it will because we got there with this bit, leaving this dangling forever is not an option.
If you’re seeing this, we got through it, hang in there.
-OK, sort of. For this, what the hey, I’ve already said it elsewhere. Allism has an attenuated or missing actuarial sense, and I am calling the psychology they have developed “Allistic Psychology,” because it somehow never translates into sociology or what people’s behaviour does to the world, it seems stuck on one’s personal pain, the social aspects, reaching no further than something specific about our parents or our kids. One has the sense that abuse is rare, a minority issue for most, because it is never spoken of in bigger, cultural terms, at least in the future.
Regarding the ‘Psycho and Sociopath CEO’ Theory
I think I hit it already, on route, that it’s a separate matter, whether you have empathy and whether you have actuarial empathy, the vision for the people of the future, right? Empathy is nice, in its way, but it is at best, not enough. We are still creating circumstances that no amount of mere empathy is going to fix, our empathy is extremely short sighted if it can’t deal with a plague, or pollution, climate change, etc., if it seems to be no prophylaxis for conflict and war.
What I really want to get at, only hinted at off the top, is the idea that psychopathy and antisocial personality disorder are not the most useful and productive ways to think about the most callous of our leaders and CEOs, that this pop psych meme isn’t helpful.
I mean, what are we to do, run our Earth-consuming money making machines with more heart? Somehow keep the psychotics out of the destroying the world for money industries? Keep them out of the army?
I think if it were a matter of any minority so small as psychopaths, fixing the world’s problems would be pretty much doable, our problems, I’m sorry, I suppose this is hard to hear when unlike myself you spent your whole life thinking you were normal and that’s good – our problems are because something is terribly wrong with most humans. Even if it were only that we’re too wild or stupid to control a few psychopaths and let them trash the world and kill us all, there would still be something terribly wrong with all of us for that, and it isn’t only that.
I mean really – oh, perhaps I oughtn’t be writing just now after all – stupid wins, doesn’t it? Never mind, that’s not going anywhere. Ha.
The point – the corporate and military worlds are very social, very human, social structures, meaning there are a lot of group dynamics going on, and it’s all about friends and enemies – I think those friends sort of take most neurodivergent people out of the picture as leaders, probably the psychopaths and APD folks too, mostly. I think the leaders are not socially disabled, but perhaps they even have superpowers in that area, and so this theory about a percentage of people with antisocial disorders being our CEOs and leaders is . . . I know, bizarre, but read me, I do this a lot – backwards, totally.
My neurodivergence means something, damnit. Yes, upside down and backwards.
The problem ones have social gifts and rational disabilities, not the other way about. I am postulating, in lieu of our sociopath CEO’s a sort of a super-Allist.
“Normal,” to the point of disorder.
More to come, probably.
Jeff
Nov. 3rd., 2023
Abuse with an Excuse 