The Autistic Hamartia: Laying down the foundations, but never setting anything in stone...

Before I begin, I would like to apologise for being inactive on the blog. Full of inspo (inspiration), I am thrilled to be back. I enjoy writing life experience posts, and with Autism Awareness Month approaching in April, I aim to recount some of my key Aspie experiences from past to present. So, I will leave this insightful snippet here as today, I talk about the idea of autistic individuals having fatal flaws, or 'hamartia', to be more precise. 

T.W: stigma, stereotypes, marginalisation, mention of Autism Speaks

We are not perfect beings, whether we are autistic or otherwise. When recognising our worth within the imperfections we see in ourselves and others, we try to find common ground by asserting that "no one is perfect". I am not against this line of thought per se, but I do not think we can dissimulate our inner flaws through proverbial diversion. However, let us say we actively and openly reflect on our personal flaws... are we trying to make a change, or are we sparking a deeper insecurity that will only lead us down a dark, emotional path? At this point, it is essential to note that I am not asking anyone to change what they consider imperfect about themselves. The reason I am starting on a slightly philosophical, slightly rhetorical note is because neurotypicals and neurodivergent individuals oftentimes feel 'changing' will remedy and resolve their personal struggles, insecurities and (now loosely put) their "imperfections". Being a neurodivergent individual, I sometimes wonder if 'change' has to be at the forefront of my flaws. Conversely, being an autistic individual, who has encountered stereotypes and equality-related challenges head on, I cannot help but question if my hamartia is part of a wider 'autistic hamartia', and if such a potentially controversial, potentially complex concept exists, do my autism-related issues make me a representative of this hypothesis, or is there the issue of sweeping generalisations at play here? 

If you are still with me, I would like to discuss my two biggest flaws as an autistic individual: need for reassurance and overthinking. Certain neurotypical readers may be able to relate, but more on that later. Whenever I feel uncertain about a situation or out of my comfort zone, I seek reassurance. Sometimes, this occurs 'in the moment', or a few days prior to an event; there is no fixed time when I seek reassurance. Usually, I find reassurance in research and discussions. However, I have a tendency to overanalyse (overthink) my anxieties when I cannot find sufficient reassurance. As a consequence of the latter, a whole spectrum of emotions comes to life. I do not wish to detail my entire Autism experience in this one point, but to avoid going off on a tangent vis-à-vis this 'spectrum of emotions', meltdowns and excessive stimming are two examples. Readers on the autism spectrum are likely to empathise with the cathartic and turbulent nature of autism expression. Back to the subject of the 'autistic hamartia', the commonalities and common bonds between numerous autistic traits, such as hand-flapping, repetitive questioning and anxiety (to name a few) have been translated from traits... to textbook... to stereotype... to social stigma. If stigma is a major by-product of common observations and their associated connotations, the 'autistic hamartia' is a direct reference to the perception of specific autistic traits as flaws. As autistic individuals, social stigma can contribute to our perception of self, namely one's self-image (I would like to write a specific blog post on the subject of stigma and self-image at a later date with views from readers). 

The very notion of an 'autistic hamartia' has psychological undertones if we consider how an autistic individual's self-image is influenced by the idea of "natural traits = flaws". Aside from the 'stigmatised', the stigma itself raises sociological questions coupled with unsettling intersectionality that clashes with contemporality as 'modern and therefore progressive' vs. archaic misconceptions of neurological conditions within social and societal settings. Here is confirmation (basic confirmation, at the very least) that the 'autistic hamartia' cannot exclusively concern one's self, or even a set of uniform traits pertaining to autism. Rather, the 'autistic hamartia' requires individuals, their perception of self against the aspects of stigmatisation, such as categorisation, stereotypes and portrayals (in the media, for instance). The 'participant / subject' dynamic is what renders the 'autistic hamartia' simultaneously ambiguous and multi-layered; either the autistic individual is at the forefront of the theoretical concept as the subject experiencing the stigma orchestrated by a neuronormative society, or the neuronormative society participates in realising (creating) and upholding a stigma of which autistic individuals are the subject since they are representative of the stigma's primary motif, 'autism'. Regardless of individuality, the 'autistic hamartia' from a stigmatic viewpoint aims to group traits associated with autism and portray these traits as flaws, conceiving an overall 'hamartia'. From this, anti-autism propaganda in the form of negative imagery is created (look as far as the infamous organisation Autism Speaks for concrete evidence of this toxic imagery in action). In this respect, the 'autistic hamartia' is a misinformed, generalised embodiment of autism as a condition within a judgemental, quintessentially "Establishment" society; the theory of an 'autistic hamartia' ironically feeds into the latter's perceptions of autism, introducing a pseudopsychological dilemma. The autistic individual, in this way, loses their role as the autonomous 'subject'. 

So far, I have explained the basic ideas behind the theoretical concept of the 'autistic hamartia'. There remains an abundance of analyses, provenances and criticisms to unpack in the subsequent posts on this subject matter. For now, there is much to digest and consider from today's post... 

Thank you for taking the time to read. 

Max de la Fontaine (2022) - founder of Supercali-flapilistic-autistic-alidocious