"What is it about these people?"
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"What is it about these people?"
A thread on abused women, autistic people... and a question asked backwards.
Researchers have spent a great deal of time trying to work out what kind of woman is especially likely to end up in abusive relationships. Which personality traits make women susceptible.
They've also spent a huge amount of time (and money) pondering over what it is about autistic people that makes them not fit in with other people.
A thread 🧵
️#ActuallyAutistic #AutismResearch #Trauma #DomesticAbuse #VictimBlaming #CriticalPsychology #SocialModelOfDisability #DoubleEmpathy
1/13
This is familiar to me.
Have you not also found yourself wondering what it is about autistic people? About yourself?
And about women who've ended up in abusive relationships? Or wondering what it is about yourself, if it's you who has? (Newsflash, however: in spite of persistent studying and expecting a conclusive result, researchers have been unable to find a consistent profile. They just can't find what exactly the “thing about” these women is.)
2/13
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This is familiar to me.
Have you not also found yourself wondering what it is about autistic people? About yourself?
And about women who've ended up in abusive relationships? Or wondering what it is about yourself, if it's you who has? (Newsflash, however: in spite of persistent studying and expecting a conclusive result, researchers have been unable to find a consistent profile. They just can't find what exactly the “thing about” these women is.)
2/13
Herman, in 'Trauma and Recovery', points out the rather fundamental problem.
The thing researchers were trying to explain in those studies into abused women was men’s violence. Yet they were looking for the explanation in the characteristics of the women the men are violent towards.
Men’s violence is men’s behaviour, and yet an enormous amount of effort has gone into trying to explain it by examining women.
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3/13
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Herman, in 'Trauma and Recovery', points out the rather fundamental problem.
The thing researchers were trying to explain in those studies into abused women was men’s violence. Yet they were looking for the explanation in the characteristics of the women the men are violent towards.
Men’s violence is men’s behaviour, and yet an enormous amount of effort has gone into trying to explain it by examining women.
️3/13
Herman gives a striking example from a 1964 study. Researchers had intended to study the men doing the abuse. Only that the men wouldn’t talk to them.
But the battered women would.
So the researchers redirected their attention to the women and began examining their personalities instead, deciding that they were “aggressive”, “indecisive”, “passive”, or “frigid”.
After which, that can basically be given as the explanation for the violence.
4/13
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Herman gives a striking example from a 1964 study. Researchers had intended to study the men doing the abuse. Only that the men wouldn’t talk to them.
But the battered women would.
So the researchers redirected their attention to the women and began examining their personalities instead, deciding that they were “aggressive”, “indecisive”, “passive”, or “frigid”.
After which, that can basically be given as the explanation for the violence.
4/13
There’s a fairly extraordinary methodological problem there.
The population whose behaviour you are trying to explain isn't in your research, and the population you can get access to becomes the place where you look for the cause.
But there’s another problem too...
️ 5/13
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There’s a fairly extraordinary methodological problem there.
The population whose behaviour you are trying to explain isn't in your research, and the population you can get access to becomes the place where you look for the cause.
But there’s another problem too...
️ 5/13
When looking into cases of classic domestic abuse, the women were already living with, or had lived through, prolonged abuse.
So even where researchers identified psychological characteristics (anger, confusion, frigidity) they shouldn't have assumed those characteristics had been there beforehand.
️6/13
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When looking into cases of classic domestic abuse, the women were already living with, or had lived through, prolonged abuse.
So even where researchers identified psychological characteristics (anger, confusion, frigidity) they shouldn't have assumed those characteristics had been there beforehand.
️6/13
Something observed after years of fear, coercion, humiliation, or violence might be an adaptation to those circumstances. It might be an injury produced by them.
Yet it gets read backwards: this is what she's like, therefore it explains why this happened to her.
7/13
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Something observed after years of fear, coercion, humiliation, or violence might be an adaptation to those circumstances. It might be an injury produced by them.
Yet it gets read backwards: this is what she's like, therefore it explains why this happened to her.
7/13
It's a bit like saying pacing back and forward within ten feet squared is a natural feature of a certain type of lioness, without taking into account the fact that she was kept in a cage that size for twenty years.
So... what about autism?
️ 8/13
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It's a bit like saying pacing back and forward within ten feet squared is a natural feature of a certain type of lioness, without taking into account the fact that she was kept in a cage that size for twenty years.
So... what about autism?
️ 8/13
We’ve spent such an extraordinary amount of time studying autistic people: their brains, genes, behaviour, communication, social skills, sensory responses, mental health, relationships.
When a less powerful population is suffering at the hands of others, we look for the explanation inside that population.
🧐🧩 (Note: the puzzle piece is used ironically here)
9/13
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We’ve spent such an extraordinary amount of time studying autistic people: their brains, genes, behaviour, communication, social skills, sensory responses, mental health, relationships.
When a less powerful population is suffering at the hands of others, we look for the explanation inside that population.
🧐🧩 (Note: the puzzle piece is used ironically here)
9/13
They're accessible. It's easier. No one powerful complains.
We say an autistic child has “social difficulties” when they get bullied in the playground.
Without looking at the behaviour of the kids who are supposedly okay. The bullies. The bystanders.
It's the strangest thing ever. I've often found myself scratching my head over it, and why everyone acts like it makes sense.
10/13
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They're accessible. It's easier. No one powerful complains.
We say an autistic child has “social difficulties” when they get bullied in the playground.
Without looking at the behaviour of the kids who are supposedly okay. The bullies. The bystanders.
It's the strangest thing ever. I've often found myself scratching my head over it, and why everyone acts like it makes sense.
10/13
When autistic people are disproportionately distressed, exhausted, isolated, unemployed, or traumatised, we study why they struggle socially, why they become overwhelmed... why they can’t cope in social settings.
Perhaps it's time to turn the telescope around?
Even if there will be complaints.
11/13
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When autistic people are disproportionately distressed, exhausted, isolated, unemployed, or traumatised, we study why they struggle socially, why they become overwhelmed... why they can’t cope in social settings.
Perhaps it's time to turn the telescope around?
Even if there will be complaints.
11/13
Autistic people, abused women, and people in other marginalised groups are like the canaries in the coal mine.
If the canary shows signs of distress in an environment, endlessly studying the canary will only tell you so much.
At some point, if you want a proper explanation, you have to study the air!
Perhaps it's toxic. Violent. And abusive.
️12/13
#SocialInjustice #Inequality #Abuse #Competition #Globalisation #Capitalism
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Autistic people, abused women, and people in other marginalised groups are like the canaries in the coal mine.
If the canary shows signs of distress in an environment, endlessly studying the canary will only tell you so much.
At some point, if you want a proper explanation, you have to study the air!
Perhaps it's toxic. Violent. And abusive.
️12/13
#SocialInjustice #Inequality #Abuse #Competition #Globalisation #Capitalism
I think we shouldn't be endlessly examining the victims of injustice and violence like this, to find "what's wrong" with them socially.
Instead, we should be listening to their accounts, picking them up and putting a plaster on their knee... and planning how to protect them in future.
And then (in our research etc.), we should be looking around and saying, with great compassion and curiosity, what the heck is going on here? And what can we do to really fix it?
(End of thread)
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I think we shouldn't be endlessly examining the victims of injustice and violence like this, to find "what's wrong" with them socially.
Instead, we should be listening to their accounts, picking them up and putting a plaster on their knee... and planning how to protect them in future.
And then (in our research etc.), we should be looking around and saying, with great compassion and curiosity, what the heck is going on here? And what can we do to really fix it?
(End of thread)
@KatyElphinstone
Thank you for sharing, this is absolutely correct.Also, as someone with a degree clinical psychology, I just cannot trust ANY psychology study anymore. The level of superficiality is unbearable.
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@KatyElphinstone
Thank you for sharing, this is absolutely correct.Also, as someone with a degree clinical psychology, I just cannot trust ANY psychology study anymore. The level of superficiality is unbearable.
It seems to often be rather colluding, doesn't it? Good to hear from you about this, as it confirms this feeling... And why I had such a terrible time when I misguidedly went on a podcast with two successful clinical psychologists!!
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"What is it about these people?"
A thread on abused women, autistic people... and a question asked backwards.
Researchers have spent a great deal of time trying to work out what kind of woman is especially likely to end up in abusive relationships. Which personality traits make women susceptible.
They've also spent a huge amount of time (and money) pondering over what it is about autistic people that makes them not fit in with other people.
A thread 🧵
️#ActuallyAutistic #AutismResearch #Trauma #DomesticAbuse #VictimBlaming #CriticalPsychology #SocialModelOfDisability #DoubleEmpathy
1/13
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F folfdk@helvede.net shared this topic
