For those of you who do not know this concept being in our out of the box is about the way that we view other people. When you are in the box you see everyone else as objects. And when you are out of the box you see people for who they are: people. You see them as living, breathing, hoping, aspiring, striving people just like you. And ultimately being in or out of the box towards someone will change they way you interact with them.
…So I give this lesson and at the end introduce this awesome concept of in and out of the box. Lots of people come up afterwards and compliment me on how good the lesson was. One brother, however, came up and told me that he had a big problem with my concept of in and out of the box. Before I go any further I need to fill you in with my history with this brother...
The first time I had ever encountered this brother was in a gospel doctrine class. He commented a whole lot and over the course of what he said revealed that he often acted as a self-appointed apologist on the Internet for people who have problems with the church. He is a man of big opinions and isn’t afraid to say what he thinks. From that point on, my wife and I called him the apologetic Mormon. After today, however, I sure put my foot in my mouth over that one.
…So this brother, the apologetic Mormon, comes up to me after quorum and says he has a problem with my concept. I think he is going to start an analytical conversation about the flaws in the concept. Instead he tells me he is a diagnosed autistic and he has no idea how he is supposed to see people as people and not objects. *Bing* That would probably explain the social awkwardness in class and super brainy attitude. We have a discussion that basically went like this:
“ How am I supposed to not be prideful when I have an inability to see people as people?” he said.
“What does God expect of you?” I replied intentionally using a question.
“He expects me to be perfect.”
“No, what does he expect of you in this life?”
“To try as hard as a I can.”
“Exactly.”
Then started a conversation about him and his autism. Before the New Year I had taught his child in my Sunday school class. The child obviously has autism but is extremely well behaved. To find out his dad was autistic was incredibly interesting. But it gets better! His dad, aside from having an amazing savante-esq story of his own childhood, purports to have helped his son overcome some of his deficits merely by having an inside perspective of autism.
Talking to this dad got my autism clinic juices flowing. How interesting it would be to have therapy that was based off of the experience of people with high functioning autism? This brother said that he had even gone into his son’s classroom and helped arrange the environment to be more autism friendly. I thought: “Why not have my future clinic be arranged by a person with high functioning autism so that it can be non-abrasive to people with autism?” I thought even more: “Why not consult with people who have high functioning autism about therapeutic approaches?”
Why do we as “normally” functioning people believe that we have the most valid form of autistic therapy? A lot of times people with autism are seen as lacking the mental awareness to be able to benefit from therapies that base their treatment introspection and changing mental thought patterns. Mostly, therapy for people with autism is much like training a dog to sit or roll over. Occupational therapy ensures they know how to tie their shoes and brush their teeth. Even relational therapy fails to enter the autistic person’s mind and see out their eyeholes. However, a therapy based off introspection made by people who realize they have autism and can identify their own thought processes and interaction with environment seems far more intuitive and potentially effective than current mainstream therapies.
Some might argue that this approach would be the blind leading the blind. I disagree. Take another pervasive disorder: schizophrenia. What we wouldn’t give to be able to dissect the schizophrenic experience. Think of the ways we could help people with schizophrenia if we just had a way to understand their experience from the inside out!
All in all, this conversation made me even more anxious to start getting my hands dirty in the field of psychology. I cannot wait to get trained and work towards possibly finding a new innovative treatment for autism.
