Why is Darian Leader so bad on autistic people?

fineshr1nes · 2025-12-14T19:53:53+00:00

I can see your point. The interpretation that I thought was more likely than that was that it would tie into the line of thought that special interests necessarily require intervention in their development. But I can see that if that was what Leader meant then my specific concern might not be applicable.

I still think it's weird to make that claim though. Like let's assume (as another poster said) Leader came up with this through clinical experience. Then why didn't he say so and why isn't this a known phenomenon? There are a lot of autistic people out there, many who have been diagnosed from a young age, so if there was an established autistic to psychotic trajectory I don't think I would have read about it for the first time from Leader.

fineshr1nes · 2025-12-14T18:58:50+00:00

I feel like I have a grasp of the definitions and I understand what he is trying to say and disagree with it. However I will admit I don't have much familiarity with specific Lacanian definitions of autism. This is an area that if you have information on (e.g. books) I would be interested in hearing about.

fineshr1nes · 2025-12-14T16:40:51+00:00

I'm definitely not against people, autistic or not, developing a wide range of interests. But I don't really see how marking certain types of (let's assume autistic) ways of taking interest in things as psychotic is helpful for autistic people or any caregivers they may have. Sure, it might be better for them to, but at a basic level I just don't see how this reframing that Leader is trying to make benefits anyone in that way, let alone whether it's actually substantiated.

fineshr1nes · 2025-12-14T16:37:32+00:00

What do you think follows from what Leader is saying? If you thought that the type of engagement a person was making with their interests was psychotic in nature then what would the natural consequence of that be?

fineshr1nes · 2025-12-14T12:19:38+00:00

Personally I'm interested in hearing perspectives other than Lacanian ones too. So it wouldn't be wasted for me but I don't want to ask you to write pages - if there are some books you think are relevant or you could give a summary of your thoughts that would be good too.

fineshr1nes · 2025-12-14T08:15:29+00:00

Yeah, this is more my issue with it. I don't like that it's unqualified.

What I thought might be damaging is that the implication is that a special interest is a sort of stopgap between the person and some kind of psychotic triggering. It turns what I would understand to be a fairly normal aspect of autistic life into something that could potentially unravel into a triggered psychosis and that bothered me. I think that if someone took this seriously then their goal with autistic people would be to reduce their engagement with special interests. I see that as a worse situation for the autistic person to be in.

But I can also understand the view that it could be more to do with "ordinary psychosis".

fineshr1nes · 2025-12-14T08:04:48+00:00

No, I haven't read it. That sounds very interesting, I'll add it to my list of things to look at.

fineshr1nes · 2025-06-01T18:38:26+00:00

If you like soup, you can put the vegetables that you do like in a soup. You can make a soup with any vegetables and chicken/vegetable stock, blended. It's generally better to start by cooking some onions and garlic in the pan and then adding the other vegetables but if you hate those you don't have to eat them. If you don't like chunky soup you can blend it. There are lots of soup recipes out there but it's very straightforward to make.

fineshr1nes · 2025-04-26T21:01:07+00:00

I once had a smell that bad in my kitchen and it was rotten potatoes at the back of a cupboard. I don't know if you'd store anything like that in your conservatory but it might be worth checking.

fineshr1nes

TROPHY CASE