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I've been going back through some of the handouts for my spiritual direction course this morning. I read an article that I'd obviously skipped over when it was first shared, and was a bit taken aback to find that it contained some pretty egregious anti-autistic and anti-blind ableism.
As is well known, children up to the age of four cannot handle the idea that other people have other minds with independent contents. A three-year-old believes that everyone knows what they know and sees what they see. The psychologists call it mind-blindness. Somewhere between the ages of three and four, children shed their mind-blindness, and begin to work out that other people have their own sets of desires and knowledge and expectations. They develop what the literature calls a ‘theory of mind’.
But some children never develop an adequate theory of mind and stay more or less mind-blind all their lives. We call this condition autism. Autistic children are able to deal with other people on one level, but they never make the leap into other people’s heads to see things their way. They never understand that someone else is a person like themselves, with independent knowledge, intentions and feelings. Thus they become frustrated at the unpredictability of their environment, and seek to impose some shape by ritual and repetition. They are prone to stubbornness, and to tantrums when things are changed out of their usual pattern.
It then goes on to use "spiritual autism" and "mind-blindness" as metaphors for how not to relate to God in prayer. Adding to my frustration is the awareness that if you took out the horrendous framing it could be a really useful and insightful article.
I emailed my tutor to say "Er, maybe let's not with the inaccurate and harmful stereotypes", and he got back to me pretty quickly to say that they would take it out of the course materials in future and try to find other resources expressing the useful ideas in a more appropriate way, so credit is due for a good response. But still, my morning would have been a lot more pleasant without having had to read that...
As is well known, children up to the age of four cannot handle the idea that other people have other minds with independent contents. A three-year-old believes that everyone knows what they know and sees what they see. The psychologists call it mind-blindness. Somewhere between the ages of three and four, children shed their mind-blindness, and begin to work out that other people have their own sets of desires and knowledge and expectations. They develop what the literature calls a ‘theory of mind’.
But some children never develop an adequate theory of mind and stay more or less mind-blind all their lives. We call this condition autism. Autistic children are able to deal with other people on one level, but they never make the leap into other people’s heads to see things their way. They never understand that someone else is a person like themselves, with independent knowledge, intentions and feelings. Thus they become frustrated at the unpredictability of their environment, and seek to impose some shape by ritual and repetition. They are prone to stubbornness, and to tantrums when things are changed out of their usual pattern.
It then goes on to use "spiritual autism" and "mind-blindness" as metaphors for how not to relate to God in prayer. Adding to my frustration is the awareness that if you took out the horrendous framing it could be a really useful and insightful article.
I emailed my tutor to say "Er, maybe let's not with the inaccurate and harmful stereotypes", and he got back to me pretty quickly to say that they would take it out of the course materials in future and try to find other resources expressing the useful ideas in a more appropriate way, so credit is due for a good response. But still, my morning would have been a lot more pleasant without having had to read that...
no subject
Date: 2021-06-05 03:02 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2021-06-05 03:48 pm (UTC)From:Surely an article about religion might acknowledge that doing things the same way at the same time every day or week brings a sense of comfort to a great many people?!
They are prone to stubbornness, and to tantrums when things are changed out of their usual pattern.
Unlike good little pliant allistic children, I guess?
Blech.
no subject
Date: 2021-06-05 04:52 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2021-06-05 06:17 pm (UTC)From:It has occurred to me that one of the problems with autism is the boundary of self. So there are two likely outcomes: you have hyper-empathy, and feel similar things to the person experiencing the problem, or you shut that off, and assume that no-one other than you (or people very similar to you, white cis men, for example) can feel anything.
Well done for emailing your tutor. And well done for your tutor for appreciating the problem.
Much solidarity from the neuro-atypical mines.
no subject
Date: 2021-06-05 07:00 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2021-06-05 10:16 pm (UTC)From:Well done for speaking up
no subject
Date: 2021-06-06 12:04 pm (UTC)From:I hope you can find other things that will push the unpleasantness out of your mind.
no subject
Date: 2021-06-07 05:28 am (UTC)From: