The Wrong Monkey

mee r munkee. mee luv yu

Friday, April 29, 2011

Steven Bollinger: I received a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in German and English from the University of Tennessee, and then studied German literature in graduate school at Tennessee, Bonn and Ohio State. I've worked as a translator, a teacher, an actor, a musician, and at a lot of other jobs I found less interesting. Some years after graduating from college I was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. Some people think Asperger's Syndrome is related to but different from autism, some think it is autism. I think it is autism, and I have come to refer to myself as autistic. Most people refer to autism as a disorder. I prefer to think of it as a condition, but I try to keep an open mind about that. "Condition" is a value-neutral term, while "disorder" carries definite negative connotations. I wish more people who refer to autism as a disorder would keep an open mind about it. It's a fact that some autistics have extraordinary, if not unique abilities. If you refrain for now from calling it a disorder I'll refrain for now from calling it an evolution, how's that?

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