Attwood - Laughter Workshop Part 1

-Terry Wogan explaining the difference between "laughing at you" and "laughing with you", in a considerably less condescending manner that Dr Tony Twatwood's recent exegesis, for the benefit of his Autistic critics.

Sunflower Sunday ii

Ah Sun-flower! weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the Sun:
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the travellers journey is done.

Where the Youth pined away with desire,
And the pale virgin shrouded in snow:
Arise from their graves and aspire,
Where my Sun-flower wishes to go.

William Blake

Attwood - P&C (Part 2 of 4)

In September 2008, Denis Seguin, the English Neurotypical father of a young boy with Asperger's Syndrome, attended an Attwood performance in Toronto, and wrote about the experience for Canada's Walrus magazine:

socrates on the way to work

"Onstage, Attwood is ideally suited to his audience, mostly professionals who deal with people on the autism spectrum, parents, and a few AS individuals."

"The information is dense but structured, the delivery spiced with pathos and humour, with mime and performance acts such as Spot the Aspy."

"For this routine, Attwood apes the carriage, ambulation, and focus of an adult AS male — back rigid but tilted slightly forward, arms and legs straight, laserlike eyes gazing at a point on the ground two metres in front of him."

"The laughter is rich with recognition. But it is Attwood’s gift for metaphor that makes his presentation so lucid and welcoming."

One person with Asperger's Syndrome who witnessed an Attwood performance commented:

"I was too busy being offended at the statements he was making that were blatantly mocking of autistics. He'd describe people with Asperger's in ways that seemed highly disparaging but that made most of the parents laugh"

In response to Donna Williams' question about his stage performances, Attwood responds:

"I can understand that that may be an interpretation. My approach is to use humour as a way people of remembering the point. Humour, laughter isn't always ridicule at a person, it can be relief of emotions for the situation.

it can be relief of emotions

The difficulty for people with autism and Asperger's... they've been laughed at, but we often have to explain to children [speaking slowly as to a pot-smoking, delinquent teenager] they're not laughing at you, they're laughing at the situation, or with you and it is the situation that is funny.
[Tony, this situation is funny to us; but not in a way that you'd understand]

we often have to explain to children

I think it's a very useful thing to get people to remember things it is an opportunity for them to feel that they can link with each other and sharing the emotional experience so that the laughter is a tension release mechanism - not necessarily ridicule."

a tension release mechanism

Now that Attwood has dismissed our complaints about our mannerisms and behaviour being used to get a laugh in a room full of more than a thousand people, as part of the symptomatology of Autism, let us ask some simple questions, that perhaps Ari Ne'eman will put to Attwood later this week:

i) would it be acceptable, regardless of circumstances, for Attwood to do an impression of low function autistics, as a mechanism for generating "laughter [as] a tension release mechanism"?

ii) if not, can he tell us in simple terms, where exactly does the boundary between Asperger's Syndrome / high-functioning autism and low-functioning autism lie?

iii) if a high-functioning autistic shares similar behaviour with a low-function autistic, i.e. stimming, would it be acceptable to use this aspect of an "Aspy's" behaviour in his routine?

iiii) would it be acceptable for Attwood, regardless of circumstance, to do an impression of someone with Down's Syndrome as a mechanism for generating "laughter [as] a tension release mechanism"?

v) was Attwood actually, as we have claimed, in the words of Donna Williams "taking the piss out of autistics" for cheap laughs?

pathological excrescence of their malfunctioning minds

vi) does Attwood feel that by making this ad hominem attack on Autistics, dismissing their concerns as a pathological excrescence of their malfunctioning minds, he has apologised for the very real offense that he has caused?

the very real offense

In response to Donna Williams' question asking if he makes fun of Neurotypicals, he replies lamely and insincerely:

"Oh, especially the British"

Ecce Homo.

Attwood - Panem Et Circenses (Part 1 of 4)

Tony Attwood's attempt at a damage limitation exercise went horrendously wrong last night during a farcical and sometimes scatological interview with Donna Williams, where he struggled for air-time to make his points, despite being spoon-fed effusive set-ups by his host.

farcical and sometimes scatological

Quicker off the mark than the New Republic, the interview has been widely criticized for it's scant regard for well documented facts.

likens attwood to bill clinton

Abfh's The Pinocchio Podcast likens Attwood to Bill Clinton and Cat in a Dog's World's, three part Blogging Attwood series, Part I: Extremism and Politics, Part II: CADD, Celebrities, and Forgotten Statements, and Part III: Power, Privilege, and "Humor, accused Attwood of having "a rather flawed understanding of The Way the World Works".

eye-wateringly embarrassing

In a sometimes eye-wateringly embarrassing interview, Williams repeatedly likened Attwood's detractors to Nazi's without challenge from him, while the world-famous Asperger's Syndrome expert, dismissed his critics arguments by referring instead to their autistic shortcomings as being responsible for the unjustified attacks.

gushed hagiographic monologues

Williams, following closely the New Republic's critical agenda, repeatedly gushed hagiographic monologues, and at one point dissolving in to girlish, fan-boy giggles when discussing Attwood's fame. She opined that his critics viewed him as "less human", and said the widespread criticism was akin to "the whole Nazi Germany thing".

the whole nazi germany thing

In her first question about Attwood's decade long association with FAAAS Inc, she asks him what FAAAS stands for:

Feigning ignorance poorly, he replied,

"Errr...Families of those Affected by Asperger's Syndrome, I think.."

On the 8th of May this year he wrote a statement for FAAAS's website in which he attempted to shrug-off the growing, worldwide criticism of some aspects of his professional life:

"The term "Cassandra Affective Deprivation Disorder" has been coined by Maxine Aston.

I have presented workshops for FAAAS for couples where one of the partners has a diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome and in all my presentations, I have approached the issues in a very positive way examining strategies to make a successful relationship."

Going on to discuss the central plank of FAAAS's Unique Selling Proposition, Cassandra Affective Deprivation Disorder (CADD), [a fictitious malady created by Maxine Aston, caused by marrying an Autistic man, which can make you get fat, ugly, give you "female related problems" and cancer], Williams asks:

"What is referred to as CADD. Can you give us the words for this?"

"Well it's not a phrase I have used at all and I'm not sure quite what is meant by that. Umm... I think the person who originally developed it was Maxine Aston and I think it reflects ... ... difficulties in the relationship and may lead the NT AND the Asperger's partner felling quite depressed because of their situation."

an infectious process

Six weeks ago Attwood appeared on camera using the words Cassandra Syndrome, and discusses, endorses and promotes Maxine Aston's latest book, for which he wrote the forward. In the video he goes on to describe women acquiring CADD by living with an Asperger's man via "an infectious process".

He kindly goes on to say in the Williams interview:

"... not necessarily needs a specific label that is exclusive to those with ASD... whether you link it to the words like "Casandra" or not, I think is a little bit dubious"

Yes Tony, we feel you using the term 6 weeks ago, and then lying badly about it, is indeed dubious.

making me feel ill

... I have to stop now. This is making me feel ill. Seriously. It's like discovering your favourite uncle spending some quality time with a picture of Richard Gere.

your favourite uncle

I really don't know how Tony Attwood will survive this with his reputation intact, unless it's through the unwavering and scarily uncritical adoration of his paying customers.

the $130 dvd's

Oh, by the way Tony, if I get around to parts 2, 3 and 4 we will be mentioning the $130 DVD's again, Maxine Aston's AS faux-diagnostic service and the behaviour of some of your most ardent defenders, with whom you are in daily contact.

lying yer arse off

Take it from me, you do not want to be in the same conversation, lying yer arse off, with someone throwing around the term "Nazi", when all we did was suggest that you adhere to basic ethical, scientific and moral standards in your work.

'cuse me while I hurl.