Fake Aspies

Asperger’s Syndrome as a Social Excuse

Asperger’s Syndrome is the flavor of the month and gives the anti-social a way to explain their boorish behavior. What do the experts have to say?

When Caroline Arnold, a 20 year-old college student, heard about Asperger’s Syndrome for the first time, she said it was like a light went on for her. Everything she read about the syndrome seemed to fit her to a T. The symptoms sounded like mild autism: a great gift for math, an extreme focus on details, and an intense discomfort with intimacy and interpersonal relationships.

Arnold had long wondered what was wrong with her. While she had a rich online life and many virtual friends, she was frustrated when it came to having face-to-face interactions such as with coworkers. She found it impossible to sustain romantic relationships for any significant amount of time.

Now at last, Caroline had a real medical term for her strange personality. At last she could take comfort in knowing that her differentness wasn’t imagined and that there was a disorder to explain her abrasive ways. It was no longer her fault that she was so weird.

Caroline isn’t alone. Recent estimates posit that there are millions of young adults who are so convinced that Asperger’s syndrome explains their interpersonal failures that they no longer bother to seek out a medical evaluation to confirm a diagnosis, or receive any kind of treatment.

Unlikeable People

Yet, as far back as 2004, The Lancet found that Arnold and other like her don’t have Asperger’s syndrome at all. These self-diagnosing social misfits just aren’t likable people. They’re just jerks, looking for a medical term to excuse their inept social behavior.

Here’s how Caroline decided she was an “Aspie:”

“I took an online test called, ‘Do you have Asperger’s Syndrome’ and got a very high score,” said Arnold.  “The results said that I’m brilliant and that I should think of my poor people skills as a gift rather than as ineptitude.  Those Lancet researchers can say what they like, but that’s what my test said, and that’s enough for me.”


The “Do you have Asperger’s Syndrome” quiz has been circulating on the Internet to the point that the quiz has gone viral. The weird thing is that people seem to take a kind of perverse pride in generating a high score. Some are even calling the quiz the new Mensa test. Is it any wonder then, that a scientific revelation that the quiz has no diagnostic value has not been well-received?

Death Threats

Study author Dr. Leon McCouch said he and his research team knew that their work would generate controversy, but the torrent of online death threats and hate mail they received on publicizing the results was stunning. McCouch insists he never meant to upset or insult anyone, but felt a duty to stem claims that “boorish behavior” could be blamed on Asperger’s Syndrome.

McCouch added that maybe he and his team should have predicted this reaction. As McCouch put it, “What else would you expect when you speak truth to a bunch of assholes?"

McCouch’s motive was to lend encouragement to those who suspect they might have Asperger’s to get tested for the disorder. But he admits that for most people, the lust for an official diagnosis is outweighed by the all-too-real possibility that they might be told they don’t have Asperger’s at all.



This article has been copied with kind permission from www.cognibeat.com and can be found in it's entirety at http://community.cognibeat.com/2010/12/fakeaspies