An Autistic on GETTING BETTER!!

by Katharine Annear · 2009-05-03 16:57:00 UTC
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[ed. Many thanks to our Australian guest blogger Katharine for helping out with a post when I could use the help, well, quite a lot :-)]

a composite photograph of young white male with very short hair and his mouth and eyes open wide. the top of his head is open about 60 degrees like a hinge, and a plastic brain is pictured where, well, his brains are.I am currently reading two books--'Embracing The Wide Sky' by Daniel Tammet and 'See Jane Lead' by Lois P. Frankel. Why am I reading such books? I have just asked myself that question and the answer doesn't come all that easily. It's something about the search for meaning and wanting to be better. Better? Better than what? Better than anyone who has ever said that I can't.

But lately I'm the one with the broken record - the 'I can't' story, the 'I'm not good enough' story, the 'I'm a fraud' story. Years of listening to others and the compounding self generated ruminations has brought me to another existential impasse. I am left in the dark having to prove myself to myself.

Tammet, an Asperger man with Savant syndrome writes of a possible way out of my quandary. He speaks of multiple intelligences, training the brain for happiness, and practice and perseverance being at the root of exceptional skill. So it is as easy as that - I'll just train my brain to think BETTER.

BETTER? BETTER THAN WHAT?

Better than men? Lois Frankel is going to tell me how to do just that, be better than men - at work; in fact she will share 99 Ways for Women to Take Charge at Work. I'm going to combine High Self Expression with High Concern for Others and become the Assertive Leader I need to be to influence my colleagues.

Both Tammet and Frankel talk about IQ and EQ the Intelligence and Emotional Quotients. Tammet discusses the alarming history of the IQ test and its use as a tool for the weeding out of imbeciles. Both agree that the Emotional Quotient has been a useful addition to the way we view behavior and assert that, according to Goleman (the father of EQ), the better my EQ the more likely I am to succeed.

Frankel also introduces LQ--the Likability Quotient. Likability Quotient!--I do believe I'm thwarted.

Intelligence--I have accepted that my Autistic Intelligence can't be measured and that I am left without a full scale IQ, Emotionality--well I'm very emotional but it takes exceptional focus to rein that in and try to begin to read and understand the emotions of others (a science for me), but Likability--how do I contend with that one. Apparently like autism, likability also falls on a spectrum. My LQ must fall somewhere between an inordinate need to be liked and a complete lack of care for how others perceive me. Let's not forget for a second that I also have an AQ (Autism Quotient) [ed. link to AQ]--I've taken the online test!

I'm going to have to think about my LQ while I continue to Embrace Tammet's Wide Sky.

Maybe with my combined IQ, EQ, AQ and LQ I will be BETTER!

BETTER?

BETTER THAN WHAT?

Katharine Annear
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