ASPIRES Home Page

The power of empathy
The empath is a recurring character in Star Trek, usually a woman, who has the ability to read the emotions of others, sometimes at great distance. What is truly sci-fi is that

almost all humans possess this apparently fantastical ability. Empathy is a true human superpower. Most of us are empaths. Most of us feel for strangers, can read other people's emotions and can feel other people's pain. Some of us can even take on the suffering of others in an effort to help them. Aremarkable proof of our empathic talents is in the movies. Almost anyone in the world can sit down to watch a film and, in a matter of minutes, begin feeling for and identifying with total strangers. Because we see it all the time, we rarely marvel at this incredible talent. We have the power to put ourselves in the shoes of people who don't even exist. These fictional creatures make us laugh, fear and cry.
Asperger diagnosis came late
A single university seminar made everything about Jen Birch’s at times difficult life make sense like "a bolt from heaven". Jen had struggled for more than 40 years with undiagnosed asperger syndrome and had spent months at Kingseat psychiatric hospital. But her life

changed forever the day she heard the lecturer describe her condition. Jen was born into a dairy farming family in Karaka and was different from other children from day one. "Mum says she could tell I was different from the day I was born but she couldn’t see what was different. "Fifty years ago there wasn’t even a term which could’ve been put on it." The Greenlane resident says she was socially withdrawn and fearful of sudden movements and sudden noises. "When I was a small I was taken to see a train. I love trains now but as a child I was terrified by the huffing and puffing and especially when it let out the squeal of the whistle." Other children were thrilled to see the train but Jen says she hunched over in fear. Heightened senses are typical of people with asperger syndrome or other autism spectrum disorders.

It's not just boys who are autistic
When it was first discovered more than 60 years ago, Asperger's syndrome was thought to be a male-only condition. But now that more and more girls are being diagnosed with it, why do we hear so little about them, wonders Joanna Moorhead. Ten years ago, when she was 11, Robyn Steward was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism that made that already challenging time particularly difficult. While other girls were forming tight friendships, hanging out with each other for hours after school, Steward had trouble fitting in with her contemporaries - more so, she suspects, than if she had been a teenage boy with the syndrome. "At that age," she says, "boys aren't connecting with one another so much, but for girls it's so cliquey. Also, the stuff I was interested in seemed even more weird in a girl than a boy. It was mostly computers and music with me - boys can get away with being a bit obsessive, but it seems more strange in a girl."

Asperger's: My life as an Earthbound alien
One CNN manager, who asked to remain anonymous, recently learned -- at 48 -- that she has Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism. Today she shares an inside view of life with the condition.
Recently, at 48 years of age, I was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. For most of my life, I knew that I was "other," not quite like everyone else. I searched for years for answers and found none, until an assignment at work required me to research autism. During that research, I found in the lives of other people with Asperger's threads of similarity that led to the diagnosis. Although having the diagnosis has been cathartic, it does not change the "otherness." It only confirms it.

Most autistic adults 'isolated'
Thousands of adults with autism find themselves isolated and ignored, one of the largest

studies into people with the condition has suggested. -The National Autistic Society Scotland said more than half of an estimated 50,000 autistic adults and their families do not get the support needed. It claimed the government does not know exactly how many people have autism, making it impossible to plan services. The charity spoke to 175 adults with the condition and their families. The I Exist report said thousands of adults with autism faced a "miserable daily reality" which left them feeling isolated and ignored, unable to access the required support, and often completely dependent on their "overburdened" families.

How to Love Without Emotions
By Robert W. Murray
It is widely said and accepted that the autistic person has serious trouble connecting with the world around them, particularly on an emotional level. This ranges from grief, to happiness, and from joy to despair. The emotional state of others is something that is completely beyond my capability in comprehending. When I see someone getting emotional over an event or situation, I find myself confused and bothered that I am unable to share in that moment with them, whether it be through tears or great enjoyment. Perhaps, though, the area which I most fundamentally misunderstand or have trouble deducing is what is referred to as ‘love’.

Supreme Courts rules juries should hear AS DX.

A-36-07 State v. Franklin Burr, II
(Middlesex County and Statewide)
Argued 3/10/08
Under the circumstances presented, was evidence that defendant suffered from Asperger’s Disorder admissible in defending against charges of sexual molestation of a minor? While expert psychiatric testimony can sometimes take a trial on an irrelevant side trip, in this case it's a worthwhile excursion to help the jury -- which is engaged in a search for the truth -- better evaluate the case in front of it.