Althouse: "Autism is related to different ways of processing information in the brain, but not in those areas related to violence..."

December 18, 2012

"Autism is related to different ways of processing information in the brain, but not in those areas related to violence..."

"Can autistic individuals get flooded emotionally and act irrationally?... Of course they can, like everyone else, but that’s not a defining characteristic."

Autism advocacy groups fend off the taint of Adam Lanza.

52 comments:

Big Mike said...: I was hoping someone would push back against the autism/aspergers bit about Adam Lanza. If you locked up all the socially awkward Aspergers people you'd lose most of your mathematicians, nearly all of your physicists, and every single psychiatrist.; 12/18/12, 10:50 AM
Bob Ellison said...: Note that Asperger’s syndrome has become quite popular among parents. "My child has Asperger’s; he's weird and a genius!" This incident might change that.

I don't mean this lightly. It's disgusting how many parents lately seem to think that Asperger’s is a mark of greatness.; 12/18/12, 10:51 AM
edutcher said...: It's the sick du jour.

The grandson of the Blonde's best bud is autistic and showing some very violent tendencies.

I wonder how that fits?; 12/18/12, 10:55 AM
Colonel Angus said...: I'm not sure why people just don't accept the obvious. Lanza was an evil bastard that committed and evil act.

Ideally his worthless remains would be dumped in a landfill where they belong.; 12/18/12, 11:03 AM
edutcher said...: If you accept the idea of evil, you accept the idea of not only God, but that we are responsible for our actions.

And then class warfare and community organizing don't work so well.; 12/18/12, 11:06 AM
Strelnikov said...: Nice speculation there, advocacy group.; 12/18/12, 11:09 AM
Colonel Angus said...: If you accept the idea of evil, you accept the idea of not only God, but that we are responsible for our actions.

As an atheist I simply subscribe to the belief that there are good folks and bad folks. I don't believe God has anything to do with it.

I also believe in accountability for ones actions, however, as a society we can gone overboard in diagnosing every despicable act a person can commit as some 'disorder'. Well I disagree. Left to our base selves, humans are capable of horrific acts. Simply look at the cleansing of the Warsaw ghetto, Nanking or Rwanda. There you had thousands of Adam Lanzas and I'll wager few of then had Ausbergers.; 12/18/12, 11:13 AM
YoungHegelian said...: Even if Lanza was autistic/Aspergers (and as far as I know, we have only the word of his brother that that was the case), I don't see any reason why autism can't occur simultaneously with some form of psychosis.

Do we have any psychiatrists/psychologists among us who can actually, you know, talk SCIENCE about this?; 12/18/12, 11:13 AM
Bob Ellison said...: edutcher said "If you accept the idea of evil..."

That's a problem lately. Forrest Gump might have said that evil is as evil does. That's a natural assumption. But lefties think otherwise:

1) Evil acts come from evil that comes before. The murderer acted on the basis of what his parents made inevitable.

2) No one person is evil, but groups can be. White males are evil, for example.

3) Evil is relative. Accept the fact that people in some countries mutiliate their folks, because that's just their culture.

The easy way out of these problems is to assume that evil doesn't exist. There's no Jesus. Just be free!

That way, you can do whatever you want, and it will only be called "policy". Maybe it will fail, but it can never be called "evil".; 12/18/12, 11:14 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: Similarly, it is probably not the case that pederasty is a defining characteristic of the autistic community.; 12/18/12, 11:14 AM
traditionalguy said...: High Functioning Asbergers would be like a concealed carry.

Whatever schizophrenia comes from, it is a clear condition to an unbiased observer. The family narcissist that spawned and tolerates the schizophrenic in the basement is the actual problem.; 12/18/12, 11:19 AM
edutcher said...: Colonel Angus said...

If you accept the idea of evil, you accept the idea of not only God, but that we are responsible for our actions.

As an atheist I simply subscribe to the belief that there are good folks and bad folks. I don't believe God has anything to do with it.

I also believe in accountability for ones actions, however, as a society we can gone overboard in diagnosing every despicable act a person can commit as some 'disorder'. Well I disagree. Left to our base selves, humans are capable of horrific acts. Simply look at the cleansing of the Warsaw ghetto, Nanking or Rwanda. There you had thousands of Adam Lanzas and I'll wager few of then had Ausbergers.

In invoking God, I was only addressing the broad swath of people and the effect religion has on public and private morality.

As to Warsaw and Nanking, there were probably fewer Lanzas than you might think, but a lot of highly impressionable young minds which had been heavily indoctrinated.; 12/18/12, 11:21 AM
holdfast said...: I don't mean this lightly. It's disgusting how many parents lately seem to think that Asperger’s is a mark of greatness.

Uh-huh. Maybe for those not dealing with it - someone else can have it, my kid's done with his. Although now it's "Autism spectrum". Whatever you call it, I could see how the alienation and loneliness that can result, when combined with some other problems, could lead a kid to extreme violence.; 12/18/12, 11:28 AM
Fritz said...: Incidentally, the DSM is dropping Asperger's as a separate disorder, merging it into the autism spectrum disorders.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/dec/02/aspergers-syndrome-dropped-psychiatric-dsm; 12/18/12, 11:34 AM
virgil xenophon said...: Young H./

Autism, Asperger's Syndrome AND ADD/ADHD are all now considered by many in the medical field as part of the same continuum, And some fold in Dyslexia as well--especially as it is connected to ADD/ADHD. It is also not uncommon for ADHD/ADD/Dyslexic types to be diagnosed as Bi-Polar as well. I would look to the Bi-Polar side of the equation to provide some of the explanatory power here..; 12/18/12, 11:42 AM
traditionalguy said...: Asbergers is asbergers. But the funding is in the autism category, so the switch helps and hurts no one. No cause for either one in known.

The new drug proven safe and effective for Tubular Sclerosis is now being tested for the effect it has upon the others nerve defects.

In PharmaWorld new drugs get funded only if the pool of sick folks (customers) is large enough to justify the costs. The new drug for tubular sclerosis is $9,000 a month.; 12/18/12, 11:43 AM
Charlie Currie said...: Let's not deal with reality, let's find a scapegoat - guns, 2nd Amendment (I repeat myself), violent entertainment, mental illness, whatever. I call BS.

When in human history have human beings NOT been violent? NOT killed, tortured, raped other human beings? How about human sacrifice? Those were lovely times.

Unfortunately, it's in our DNA, our lizard brain. Fortunately, we are repulsed by evil, yet we are still the most efficient killing machine that has walk the earth. We are capable of horrendous acts of evil. And no religion, pagan or modern, has clean hands.

We are the cause of the extinction of thousands of species of flora and fauna, and we will continue to do so.

Looking for scapegoats, will not change any of this.

Cheers; 12/18/12, 11:48 AM
virgil xenophon said...: Young H., Part II/

I should add that the medical profession is hardly uniform in the way that different parts of the community view these maladies. Take the Dyslexia-ADD/ADHD divide, for example. University-based medical/psychology/special needs education types tend to separate the two, while many researchers/educators in pvt foundations/schools fold them together in terms of treatment. (A philosophical disagreement amongst professionals over differing practcal approaches hardly unknown in other specialties of medicine or in other professions like, say, the armed services.); 12/18/12, 11:53 AM
TMink said...: YoungH, Asperger's was the least of that boy's problems. Asperger's and autism are not associated with any type of dangerous acting out.

And plenty of mentally healthy people do despicable things. This guy may have had an autism spectrum disorder, but that is not associated with violent acting out.

Trey; 12/18/12, 12:10 PM
Quaestor said...: Autism is related to different ways of processing information in the brain, but not in those areas related to violence.

Nickerson-Reti is making a claim she can't support. There is no central locus of violence. Even the so-called lizard brain (the limbic lobe) is as much associated with parental nurturing as with violent activity.

PET scans of autistic brains doing autistic things like reciting the names of every city, town and hamlet along I-95 from Houlton, Maine to Miami show divergent patterns vis-à-vis non-autistic brains doing the same task. But not always. There are many people who are considered classically autistic, with their IQs and behaviors dead in the middle of he spectrum whose scans are indistinguishable from the norm, which drives home the fact that no one knows what autism is or even whether it is.

Every self-proclaimed expert on the subject will have a different opinion on the matter. If that Boston Globe reporterette had cast her net a bit wider she could have found someone just as eminent as Nickerson-Reti to contradict her.

Nickerson-Reti is correct that Asperger kids are obsessed by logic and rule-based behavior -- she can't help being right because that's part of the definition of Asperger syndrome -- but she's mistaken if she thinks being logical can't lead to violence. If you start from a crazy premise (the CIA is monitoring my brain via satellite) you can't avoid a crazy conclusion (people with GPS receivers are government agents) unless you depart from strictly logical thinking. Someone who is autistic and paranoid could hardly avoid a violent conclusion.

Of course this assumes Asperger syndrome to be real, which is not clearly established, and this basic uncertainty is the root of the autism "epidemic" which occasionally makes the news. If a baby doesn't reach certain development targets by a certain age, some of the targets and ages being quite arbitrary, the child is deemed autistic. The label thus afixed the diagnosis then colors how the child is treated, educated and socialized from then on -- with no certainty whether the regimen ameliorates autism or exacerbates it.

Autistics are less of a problem then their advocates it seems. There was a time when someone with a sub-normal IQ who was nonetheless capable of astounding feats of memory or calculation (always within rigidly defined boundaries) was called an idiot savant, i.e. a wise fool, a rather hard-hearted but accurate description. Now, thanks to the loudly hectoring advocates (and not the idiot savants themselves, who likely would know or care one way or the other) they are called savants, which should give one an insight into the morality of these self-appointed defenders. They'd rather pollute the language, sow confusion among students when they read that Ben Franklin was a universally acclaimed savant of his age, than offend someone who likely doesn't give a shit.; 12/18/12, 12:11 PM
TMink said...: virgil, certainly the attention diagnoses, dyslexia, and autistic spectrum disorders are common co-morbid problems. They are common enough that when most of us in the field find one, we look for the others.

I do not think that bipolar is as often a consideration. It sometimes gets added to the diagnosis because the person is honestly just all fracked up, and adding the bipolar gives you a reason to use some calming meds and lets other clinicians know that there is a big problem.

Trey; 12/18/12, 12:15 PM
Peter said...: Colonel Angus said, "I'm not sure why people just don't accept the obvious. Lanza was an evil bastard that committed and evil act."

Yet many people simply reject the concept of evil (even if they accept the concept of "good"). Thus, it's said that people don't do evil (and they surely aren't evil)- they act as they do because they're "sick."

And sometimes they do. But sometimes they're just evil.; 12/18/12, 12:25 PM
rhhardin said...: A process without anything it's a process of. It's brain science.; 12/18/12, 12:33 PM
Charlie Currie said...: I take back everything I said above.

According to a Salon article - Adam Lanza was a Vegan! Didn't want to hurt animals.

Now that's something I can get behind scapegoating.

It wasn't the "hunters" that were the cause of all human evil, it was the "gathers".

Cheers; 12/18/12, 12:35 PM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: Quaestor said...

Of course this assumes Asperger syndrome to be real, which is not clearly established, and this basic uncertainty is the root of the autism "epidemic" which occasionally makes the news.

I want you to meet my 18 year old step-son, who was diagnosed with Asperger's at age 5. Maybe you can tell him his condition doesn't exist while he's rocking back and forth, or pacing uncontrolably. Don't be put off if he doesn't look you in the eye, Aspies have a hard time with that.

Oh, wait! There's no such thing as Aspergers according to you. I guess I guess we was lied to by all them psychiatrists and therapists over the years....; 12/18/12, 12:45 PM
n.n said...: Autism is an umbrella term which covers a range of symptoms without a known cause or causes.

A big problem in our society is that we prefer to treat symptoms while ignoring or obfuscating causes. It is, of course, understandable, since treating symptoms is profitable in perpetuity, and an effective prop to advance political, economic, and social standing.; 12/18/12, 12:45 PM
Hagar said...: The way they are throwing "autism" and "Asperger's" around these days, could not Obama be described as a "victim" of mild forms of either or both?; 12/18/12, 1:06 PM
Quaestor said...: I want you to meet my 18 year old step-son, who was diagnosed with Asperger's at age 5...

Thanks for making my point, North etc., bet you didn't intend that outcome.

If you had keep abreast of the literature you'd know that in the intervening 13 years the clinical definition Asperger syndrome has changed, changed to the point that some researchers consider the term obsolete.

So is your little Aspie still an Aspie? Depends on who you consult, doesn't it? Which only goes to reinforce my point that autism as a field is inadequately defined. If it where not, then why the radical changes? Well studies fields of medicine don't so often upend and reverse.

Did I write that Asperger syndrome doesn't exist? I don't recall. Perhaps you can enlighten me citing my quote to that effect.; 12/18/12, 1:09 PM
Hagar said...: and North,

That something is wrong with your stepson does not necessarily validate "Asperger's Syndrome."

Another psychiatrist might diagnose your stepson's problem as "XYZ Syndrome," or whatever.; 12/18/12, 1:10 PM
Quaestor said...: @North etc.

As for or stepson not looking you in the eye, perhaps he just finds you insufferably boring.; 12/18/12, 1:12 PM
SPImmortal said...: Note that Asperger’s syndrome has become quite popular among parents. "My child has Asperger’s; he's weird and a genius!" This incident might change that.

I don't mean this lightly. It's disgusting how many parents lately seem to think that Asperger’s is a mark of greatness.

--------------------

Assburger's is more likely to cause your child to live as and adult and play with his Pokemon cards than allow them to become anything productive.; 12/18/12, 1:15 PM
Hagar said...: or Asperger's, autism, and ADD exist, but have become fashionable and are wildly and promiscuously misused to label any kid that does not respond quite the way the professor back in college said they would if you taught according to her textbook.; 12/18/12, 1:21 PM
SPImmortal said...: I want you to meet my 18 year old step-son, who was diagnosed with Asperger's at age 5. Maybe you can tell him his condition doesn't exist while he's rocking back and forth, or pacing uncontrolably. Don't be put off if he doesn't look you in the eye, Aspies have a hard time with that.

--------------

Sounds like me when I was a kid.

Some people have a hard time looking others in the eye - it means they're shy, which is nicer way of saying they're timid.

Rocking back and forth and pacing are signs of hyperactivity, which is something I struggled with in my youth. I still pace uncontrollably at certain times.

I don't know if Asperger's exists or not but what you're describing sounds more like symptoms of ADHD plus being introverted.; 12/18/12, 1:22 PM
Quaestor said...: Wasn't it interesting how North-etc. jumped in with fists balled, saying in effect "How dare you suggest my stepson isn't as hopeless as the clinician says"?

What kind of thinking dictates such a response? Is North-etc. afraid the well of pity might dry up? Or is he resentful that there exists the possibility that all that money spend on therapy might have been wasted?; 12/18/12, 1:30 PM
SPImmortal said...: Wasn't it interesting how North-etc. jumped in with fists balled, saying in effect "How dare you suggest my stepson isn't as hopeless as the clinician says"?

What kind of thinking dictates such a response? Is North-etc. afraid the well of pity might dry up? Or is he resentful that there exists the possibility that all that money spend on therapy might have been wasted?

-----------------------

Probably just wants an answer to the behavioral problems his son is having.

Asberger's kinda wraps it up in a neat little bow, but what is it? In my experience it just seems to be shorthand for "socially awkward", with some seemingly unrelated thinks like high energy repetitive movements(hyperactivity) thrown in.

Is there a real biological or psychological links between the supposed sypmtoms? Who knows.

If I was growing up today I probably would have been diagnosed with Asperger's.; 12/18/12, 1:35 PM
Carl said...: This was indeed one of the most deeply contemptible aspects of the news reporting on this atrocity. (It wasn't a "tragedy" -- a tragedy is a hurricane or an earthquake, something not deliberately perpetrated by a human being, and act of God.)

It was arrogant and irresponsible for any professional news media organizations to repeat descriptions of Lanza as "autistic" without checking with someone qualified to define that word, and familiar with the sufferers thereof, who could have provided context. That way they could have said "Ryan Lanza says is brother might be autistic, but Dr. So-and-so, who has treated autistic children for 20 years and written 5 papers on the subject, says this is an amateur's mistake, and autistics do not behave this way."

And if they didn't have time to put it in context, they should've just STFU, because the only purpose of this tidbit was to gain insight into the nature of a murderer, and you are irresponsible if you highlight aspects that are of no relevance, but which ignorant people might think could be. If would be like highlighting the race or religion of the criminal. Did you know he was a Jew? See?!; 12/18/12, 1:50 PM
Cedarford said...: TMink said...
YoungH, Asperger's was the least of that boy's problems. Asperger's and autism are not associated with any type of dangerous acting out.

And plenty of mentally healthy people do despicable things. This guy may have had an autism spectrum disorder, but that is not associated with violent acting out.

Trey

===================
Though TMink is a very bright guy and educated in the field...I'll push back.
What sort of person could, without heavy indoctrination by a group, religion, or government - butcher without remorse?
Pump 11 rounds into a kid from a high velocity rifle and witness the chunks of flesh flying off, eyeballs blowing out from hydrostatic pressure in the front, brains and skull flying up, and half the face peeled off by shot #8 and foot severed from shot #10???
Then move on to a dozen other targets without feeling a thing?

Someone born without empathy, no ability to relate to others, whose whole behavior system to stop extremes of anger or disobedience is only grounded in the reward/punishment system of the mother you just shot the face off with 4 bullets.

Yes, there are minds diseased by autism and sociopath tendencies and tumors and schizophrenia that never become Laughner, Maj Nidal Hasan, James Holmes, the sociopath Eric Harris from Columbine, or Adam Lanza.
Many people get brain cancer and die peacefully and don't mount the Texas Tower with scoped rifles like Charles Whitman did.

But an austistic or Asperger's adult with uncontrolled anger bouts fed a diet of violent media with access to guns is not a good thing.

Nor are black thugs raised in a culture of decay and violence fed a steady diet of violent media and exhaltation of violence nd intimidation as the way to get your way as a thug - is not a good thing.
And black thugs in a typical year kill 200 times the number of people lost in "massacres".; 12/18/12, 2:00 PM
Known Unknown said...: But Adam Lanza's taint was no where near these people!; 12/18/12, 2:12 PM
Cedarford said...: Angus - "Well I disagree. Left to our base selves, humans are capable of horrific acts. Simply look at the cleansing of the Warsaw ghetto, Nanking or Rwanda. There you had thousands of Adam Lanzas and I'll wager few of then had Ausbergers".

You do not understand the difference between someone programmed by authority and or culture to easily butcher others and a diseased mind that gravitates to butchery naturally.

Few if any of the Nazis, Rwandan Hutus or the even worse and more inhuman Japanese soldiers conduct in Asia was due to any Adam Lanzas or autistic/Aspergers types on point doing the butchery.
They were programmed.
Studies after the conflict showed how some of the worst went home and became loving family people, kindly and caring Japanese doctors who 5 years previous - were vivisecting Chicommies infected by plague the doctor inoculated them with.
That gave a lot of people hope that criminals could be rehabilitated as quickly as ex-Nazis and ex-African child soldiers and Japanese Imperial Marines had.
A false hope as criminality was part genetic, and rooted in peacetime cultures the thugs and wife beaters and robbers and rapists emerged from that did not disappear as totally and decisively as a war's end.
(Maybe a reason why wars should not be stopped before true and utter defeat of one side in the name of an imposed "Peace at any price" because the mindset of war and norms of war remain with the Afghans, the NORKs, the beaten but not bowed Iraqi Sunnis.); 12/18/12, 2:18 PM
Known Unknown said...: As for or stepson not looking you in the eye, perhaps he just finds you insufferably boring.

Ahem.

My brother has it, whatever we'll call it in the next five years. Social awkwardness, habit spasms, difficulty in producing empathy, affection for machines over people, pockets of brilliance diluted by an incapacity to learn via traditional methods.

He also has acted out — mostly yelling without overt violence. I don't think that's the autism, but something else, perhaps schizophrenia.; 12/18/12, 2:18 PM
Cedarford said...: Carl - "and you are irresponsible if you highlight aspects that are of no relevance, but which ignorant people might think could be. If would be like highlighting the race or religion of the criminal. Did you know he was a Jew? See?!"

What governments want is people not speculating or looking for facts at all - leaving all that to government employees and lawyers to sort out in leisurely "investigations" and criminal due process proceedings that take several months or several years after a mass death even, a brutal stanger-on-stranger attack in public, a series of violent rapes by one person in one city..or a massive financial scandal.

But the "don't worry the government or courts will inform you what happened years from the Huge Event" approach does not work with the general public.

I am not talking about media 24/7 speculation right after it - where fucking mass media idiots are instructed by owners and editors to pull nonsense, rumors devoid of facts out of their asses.

But the public wants to understand the rough gist of how the WTC fell down before it is addressed by lawyers dressed in robes years out. They seek to see if there is a pattern, a common thread to events that could recur...what class if perps are involved.

1. 16 year old smashed in the head in London - OK - what sort did that so we in the public can be on guard as it wasn't the 1st time..Was it English gentry? Red-headed guys? Black thugs? Aha! Black thugs.

2. 20 mass shootings in 11 years. Common thread? 18 of them were by crazy people fed media violence since childhood, with access to very destructive, repeating fire weapons. Is it wrong to know those basic facts?

3. 14 massive financial scandals and meltdowns globally in 30 years. Who? Pattern shows no true common thread - just overrepresentation of corrupt Euro Elites, self-made Evangelicals, politicians of all ethnic and racial backgrounds feeding at the corrupt fiscal trough, lots of scandals tracing to Jewish financiers but not a absolute majority..; 12/18/12, 2:38 PM
Robert Cook said...: "I also believe in accountability for ones actions, however, as a society we can gone overboard in diagnosing every despicable act a person can commit as some 'disorder'"

No one has said Adam Lanza committed his violent acts as a result of his having Asperger's. They're just pointing this out about him as a descriptive of his personality. People who know little or nothing about Asperger's may, unfortunately, draw the inference of a connection and conclude that the condition caused the actions, but people as a rule hold all manner of erroneous ideas.

If Lanza was intelligent enough and a conscious enough actor to have achieved high grades in school, he can be assumed to have known exactly what he was doing, and he is responsible for his acts.; 12/18/12, 2:55 PM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: What kind of thinking dictates such a response? Is North-etc. afraid the well of pity might dry up? Or is he resentful that there exists the possibility that all that money spend on therapy might have been wasted?.

Just sick of reading shit spewed by loudmouthed assholes like you.; 12/18/12, 3:03 PM
Quaestor said...: To quote myself: Autistics are less of a problem then their advocates it seems.

North etc. wrote:
Just sick of reading shit spewed by loudmouthed assholes like you.

QED; 12/18/12, 3:29 PM
Methadras said...: I have synesthasia, I'm constantly and perpetually assaulted by stimuli that encompasses all 5 of my senses, then all of those 5 senses cross feed to the other 5 in some form or manner and yet, I still can function like any normal human being and not turn into a wailing, dysfunctional, self-rocking basket case who flails and moans and acts out violently. People with autistic children need to get a fucking grip. You're child floats between some bizarre inner wonderland of his own making and mental dysfunction and you have the nerve to tell us, "Oh, he's just some secret genius waiting for a solution." Ugh.; 12/18/12, 3:30 PM
Robert Cook said...: "People with autistic children need to get a fucking grip. You're child floats between some bizarre inner wonderland of his own making and mental dysfunction and you have the nerve to tell us, 'Oh, he's just some secret genius waiting for a solution.' Ugh."

No one who knows anything about Asperger's would claim (or believe) their children to be geniuses--secret or otherwise--just because they had Asperger's Syndrome.

People with Asperger's syndrome are like everyone...they come in all shapes and sizes and ranges of intellect. Some may be geniuses, but most are not. One might argue that the particular type of thinking to which they're prone makes them more suited for certain types of pursuits than others, and that the focus they bring to bear on their activity might allow them to achieve facility or even mastery in their endeavors, but I don't know if there are any statistics that would support even this modest hypothesis. Perhaps most Aspies are, aside from their unusual mentation and affect, altogether normal and average.; 12/18/12, 3:49 PM
William R. Hamblen said...: Adam Lanza shot and killed his mother before going to the Sandy Hook school. Matricide is rare, and when it occurs the killer frequently has paranoid schizophrenia. Autism does not preclude schizophrenia, and autistic withdrawal is a feature of schizophrenia.; 12/18/12, 4:06 PM
Big Mike said...: You nailed it, Cookie. Today is a red letter day; you and I are in agreement on some issue.; 12/18/12, 4:07 PM
Cedarford said...: Cook - "If Lanza was intelligent enough and a conscious enough actor to have achieved high grades in school, he can be assumed to have known exactly what he was doing, and he is responsible for his acts."

-------------
NO he can't. A lot of people are crazy and can function at a high level in some aspects of their lives - grades and IQ are classic references when you talk about someone like the Unabomber or the recent psycho James Holmes.
That does not mean they are 100% rational or bound by normal human inhibitions. They can shoot people with the indifference of someone shooting bowling pins at a target range.
I don't even want society to bother with the time and expense of establishing "criminal responsibility". I want the nutballs separated from guns and violent media products. And in certain cases, I want the nutballs locked away with the minimum trouble and expense it would take to remove them as threats to public safety.; 12/18/12, 4:44 PM
Darrell said...: Asperger’s syndrome was the only diagnosis Adam Lanza's mother would accept. She knew that label would not necessarily derail the rest of his life. Didn't she pull him out of school when school officials asked that he be given a full psychological evaluation? She didn't want what was found to follow him around forever. Since he was 20, I suspect the first stages of bipolar disorder (or worse) were starting to manifest. We will never know. Nor will we know why the school wanted him to be evaluated in the first place. There must have been a reason.; 12/18/12, 5:32 PM
Robert Cook said...: "I don't even want society to bother with the time and expense of establishing 'criminal responsibility'. I want the nutballs separated from guns and violent media products. And in certain cases, I want the nutballs locked away with the minimum trouble and expense it would take to remove them as threats to public safety."

1.) The Constitution does not provide exceptions to the Bill of Rights because someone is a "nutball" or because his or her crimes are especially egregious.

2.) The above is true for good reason: once exceptions are made to Constitutional protections and guarantees of due process to special categories of people, the opening to wholesale abandonment of these protections for all citizens will swiftly be thrown wide open. Protections for each of us can be only guaranteed to the extent they are guaranteed to all of us.

3.) Casting persons into mental hospitals instead of prison was a regular feature of Soviet Russia. Assuming your wish is for such as Adam Lanza (who survive their crimes, that is) to be committed with dispatch to psychiatric hospitals for lengthy sentences in lieu of a trial or finding of criminal responsibility, you would find the result to be the demolition of most of our prisons and their replacement by facilities to house our new (and huge) population of newly diagnosed madmen, (there to be confined "for their own safety and the safety of their communities").; 12/18/12, 7:40 PM
kentuckyliz said...: There should be a burger joint named Big Aspergers.

Although there is this.

And in the same city, this.; 12/18/12, 8:13 PM