Salon.com and Still Lovers book
- Britti_Lover
- Doll Mentor
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The only subset that I didn't see mentioned, at least I don't think so, were the types like me who are happily married yet have dolls and may or may not hide them from their wives. (probable could've made the article even more interesting)
Doll sex saved me from a lot of unessasary arguments with my wife, cause I need it at least every other day.
Over all I thought it was fair.
It would also appear that I have Aspergers syndrome and I`m left handed to boot, well theres just no hope for me I`m doomed.
Why do people always feel they need to categorise others, I believe we are as diverse in character as any other group or is this me just bucking authority again?
Rentell
- Fargo
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- Everhard
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Meghan is the first person I have come across who has linked some men's failure to connect with women to the possibility of Asperger's syndrome -- a mild form of autism. I have occasionally come across radio programs about Asperger's syndrome and I suspect it may account partly for my own situation. There is definitely, to me, a secret language of non verbal communication going on out there. I just wish somebody would study it scientifically in terms of what it consists of, rather than the mere fact that it exists. (Maybe they have, but if so, I have not come across their findings.)
If you are refering to Asperger's syndrome (and left handedness), it is true that some people seem to get a kick out of categorizing others by labelling them. What they fail to understand that labeling a behaviour or set of behaviours sheds no extra light on it. Linking it to the functioning of various parts of the brain, in contrast, does shed some light on it (but not much). However, there is nothing special about that. All behaviour, where it differs between one person and another, results from differences in functioning of the relevant part of the brain.Rentell wrote:Why do people always feel they need to categorise others, I believe we are as diverse in character as any other group or is this me just bucking authority again?
As with the last part of the New Yorker article, the last part of Meghan's original is equally punchy (but different).
Be interesting to see how many more of the TDeFer`s are left handed as well.
Is it true that our brains are the reverse of right handed people?
Anyway, I still say where all dooooomed ( in a thick Scots accent)
Rentell
Albumhttp://www.dollalbum.com/gallery/rachel/aad
- AlexKnight
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It at least sums a lot of my character traits.
But it also has a lot to do with insecurity with me, I've always been dumped and ridiculed (sp?) by a lot of women, so I'm unable to open up easy and show my feelings, because I'm afraid of getting hurt again.
BTW, I'm righthanded.
or have a look at Ashley's Coverdoll release by clicking here - June 13, 2015
A must-see video on Realdoll softness! Click here!
_____________________________
A Spark of Kindness may start a Fire of Love.
Here's my Doll Album, with pictures of Jenna*, Melissa*, Kayla & Ashley, and some other things: Doll Album Gallery
*I no longer have Jenna or Melissa.
I haven't yet checked out the longer article (waiting until tonight when I have Special Time), but wanted to just post and say "Thanks," and echo the other comments about what an honor it was to have been allowed to work with you. It was great fun, and if you do a sequel, hope that we get a second chance
Also thanks for Sidore's link; she's a special doll for sure Funny, I can barely think of her as a doll
Anyway, I appreciate your link to the Long Article; I was unsure if I'd ever get a chance to read it! Your hard work seems to have paid off (at least I hope it has, for you )
Too bad that Salon felt that Lily and I didn't fit their vision for what they wanted, but I'm sure that she is happy that she was at least included in your project, as am I (of course!)...
Take care, and best wishes,
PBS & Lily
The full article is a much more balanced and not so sensational account of our pastime and the venture into psychology and is well worth reading.............see how many similarities of Asperger`s syndrome you can come up with.
Perhaps this is why we do what we do.
We can now proudly tell everyone that we have a syndrome and cant help ourselves.................. well thats a relief.
Rentell
Albumhttp://www.dollalbum.com/gallery/rachel/aad
I never met a latex inflatable I didn't like...
Buy at the Doll Forum Toy Store... Give a doll a home!
I already saw the short article, as Meghan clued me in about it; thanks for the tip
I find it hard to look askance at anyone here due to our quite varied and interesting passions. I really like the diversity of our group and the slant of the short article kind of bothered me, as edited. I don't like my friends being sensationalised, and even though we all aren't FRIENDS friends, I sure do feel warm toward and protective of and enjoy hanging out with all of us regardless of how portrayed.
I do get a little defensive though. It is a shame to see what our Davecat has had to endure at the harpies shredding him on their crude little forum that I won't even plug, all because he was point man for the article. And Meghan did a great job in writing it, really, but you just know that hostile and hateful "feminists" are going to work him over for daring to be front and center (and the easiest target). I'm reminded of a Roger Waters song "The Bravery of Shooting Out of Range"...
I am looking forward to the longer article though, and see what all this Asperger thingy is all about. For now, I do what I do because it's fun, really needs no deeper introspection than that And I love my Lily because I created her (in more ways than one).
So, fuck the critics
Ooh, does that make me a misogynist? Hell no!
I'm just pissed at reading that stupid Forum; see Davecat's blog for the sick details. I may jump in there and rip them a new asshole, since that's all the lot of them are anyway...
Ta & Byee,
PBS & LIly
Now that I've read the full 22 pages (one page was empty), I did not get the above impression at all. It's the way the article was edited.Inkling wrote:Perhaps the author was a little biased because the author was a woman.
When I was first introduced to this type of terminology here on TDF, it simply meant that one doll had the same head and body type and skin tone. If I saw such an image as described above, I wouldn't think anything of it, because I would not view them as "really" related. If someone called two dolls "girlfriends" I would not immediately think "homosexual". Then again, in the article, Everhard mentions the desire some men might have to want sex with both mother and daughter.others of Everhard’s photographic vignettes are peculiar: When did you last see a naked 18 year old girl straddling her naked mother in a pillow fight?
I would normally take this as just humor.He uses a belt as a pulley to hoist her backbone up closer to the surface to replace the hardware. Then a photograph shows the belt striking her bare buttocks. “And this for all the trouble you’ve caused me…(whack),” the caption reads.
The article, for the most part, ends in largely negative tones because the primary focus on psychology is more on negative than positive aspects. I intend to read more on Asperger. I don't recall this in the DSM-III-R, but more than a decade later I forget more than half of what I once knew about psychology. If circumstances were the same as a dozen years ago, I might have become someone to attempt an exploration of psychological impacts and causations involving doll ownership.
An intellegent and mature person cannot in go public with something uncommonly practiced and in all honesty really expect a fairer treatment than the article offers.
Hans Asperger (February 18, 1906 - October 21, 1980) was the Austrian pediatrician after whom Asperger's Syndrome is named.
Born in Vienna, Asperger published the first definition of Asperger's Syndrome in 1944. In four boys, he identified a pattern of behavior and abilities that he called "autistic psychopathy," meaning autism (self) and psychopathy (personality disease). The pattern included "a lack of empathy, little ability to form friendships, one-sided conversation, intense absorption in a special interest, and clumsy movements." Asperger called children with AS "little professors" because of their ability to talk about their favourite subject in great detail.
Asperger syndrome (sometimes called Asperger's syndrome, AS, or the more common shorthand Asperger's), is characterized as one of the five pervasive developmental disorders*, and is commonly referred to as a form of high functioning autism**.
(cont. at "&")
*refers to a group of disorders characterized by delays in the development of multiple basic functions including socialization and communication... may include communication problems such as:
Using and understanding language
Difficulty relating to people, objects, and events
Unusual play with toys and other objects
Difficulty with changes in routine or familiar surroundings
Repetitive body movements or behavior patterns
(Inkling's note: this is not enough information sufficeint for a clinical diagnosis)
**High-Functioning Autism (HFA) is a term used to describe individuals who display symptoms of autism and are able to function close to a normal level in society. Generally, the social difficulties created by their autism do not adversely impact their ability to interact with others on a day-to-day basis. They may simultaneously benefit from some of the more positive aspects of autism. For example, they may have the ability to focus intensely and for long periods on a difficult problem. Asperger's syndrome is sometimes used in the same thought as HFA, and the exact difference between autism, Asperger's syndrome, and HFA varies from person to person.
(& cont.)
(Inkling's note: reason I knew nothing of this from the DSM-III-R is because Asperger was not included until the DSM-IV-R)
Definitions & Diagnostic Criteria
Asperger syndrome is defined in section 299.80 of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV)*** as:
(***Latest version is DSM-IV-TR, published year 2000)
(Inkling's note: I should also point out that without psychologically contextual definitions of some terms, omission of organic causes, as well as comparisons between AS and other diagnostic criteria - you will not be able to determine for certain that you have Asperger's)
Qualitative impairment in social interaction, as manifested by at least two of the following:
Marked impairments in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body posture, and gestures to regulate social interaction.
Failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level.
A lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interest or achievements with other people (e.g., by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest to other people).
A lack of social or emotional reciprocity.
Restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests and activities, as manifested by at least one of the following:
Encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus.
Apparently inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals.
Stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms (e.g., hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements).
Persistent preoccupation with parts of objects.
The disturbance causes clinically significant impairments in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.
There is no clinically significant general delay in language (e.g., single words used by age two years, communicative phrases used by age three years).
There is no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or in the development of age-appropriate self-help skills or adaptive behavior (other than in social interaction) and curiosity about the environment in childhood.
Criteria are not met for another specific Pervasive Developmental Disorder or Schizophrenia.
Please read the DSM cautionary statement. The diagnostic criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual are criticized for being vague and subjective; a condition which one psychologist might define as a "significant impairment" might be defined by another psychologist as merely insignificant.
Christopher Gillberg in A Guide to Asperger Syndrome (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), also criticizes the "no significant delay" clauses of the DSM, and to a lesser extent some of the others as well, and argues the clauses represent a misunderstanding or oversimplification of the syndrome. He states that while there may well be significant delay in some areas of language development, it is often combined with exceptionally high functioning in other language-related areas, and argues that this combination superficially resembles, but is in reality very different from, normal development in language and adaptive behaviour.
Partly due to Asperger syndrome's relatively recent appearance in the DSM, and partly due to differences of opinion such as Gillberg's, there are at least three other, slightly different sets of diagnostic criteria used in the field besides the DSM-IV definition above. One is due to Gillberg himself and his wife, and is also endorsed by Attwood; among other differences, this definition emphasizes the linguistic peculiarities which go unmentioned in the DSM-IV criteria. Another definition is due to a team of Canadian researchers, and is often referred to as the Szatmari definition, after the first listed author of the paper in which these criteria first appeared. Both of these definitions were first published in 1989. The third is the ICD-10 definition; this one is similar to the DSM-IV version, and Gillberg criticizes it in much the same manner as he does the DSM-IV version.
- Everhard
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Asperger's Syndrome Rules!
In fact, well before Asperger's became publicized in the popular media during the late 1990s, full blown autism featured on the radio occasionally. Although I am clearly not autistic, I recognized enough of an echo of the symptoms in myself that I described myself (privately, to myself) as a semi-autistic manic depressive .
Bear in mind that Asperger's syndrome is merely a label for a set of character traits linked, naturally, with increased or decreased activity in certain parts of the brain. (All differences in behavior between individuals can be so linked.) It is not an infection or a disease, although it certainly has a down side. So, what does all this tell us?
My answer requires some philosophical grounding (unfortunately). A lot of psychology, particularly the Freudian variety, is pseudo science in that it does not ask (or answer) the question, how did it (the condition being discussed) come to exist? The answer in the case of a friend of mine with behavioral problems severe enough that he spends much time in jail and in psychiatric hospitals is easy to find: He landed on his head after his hang glider tucked during an experimental car tow launch in 1979. Conditions like Asperger's, being genetic, have an equally straightforward explanation, which is however much less harder to find because nobody stopped to film the course of human evolution. (Unless you believe HG Wells' The War of the Worlds, in which case Asperger's is the least of your worries. )
I contend that Asperger's syndrome is 'adaptive' (an advantage in terms of survival and sexual success) for certain kinds of individual in certain conditions of society during our evolution. (Such conditions may not still exist but we could, in principal, engineer them if we saw fit.) What conditions?
Frankly I do not know, but I believe there was a time when the physical and mental characteristics typified by the brand of 'right stuff' portrayed in Starship Troopers (my favorite movie) conferred greater genetic success than 'social skills' and the ability to seduce women by 'non verbal communication, 'eye contact', and similar trivia.
- SeekingJoanna
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When I read <a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12 ... .html">The Geek Syndrome</a> in Wired nearly four years ago, I recognized myself. Ms. Laslocky's observation that there could be a relationship between Asperger's Syndrome and an affinity for dolls struck me as being very perceptive, and not at all unflattering. (Perhaps Jeffrey Dahmer did have AS. Well, so does <a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.0 ... html">Bram Cohen</a>.)
I'm very pleased to have found such a supportive and respectful community. My sincere thanks to everyone who makes it so, and to Meghan for leading me to it.