Tony Atwood Conversational Discourse

This paper looks at the conversational discourse presented by English psychologist and autism specialist Tony Attwood in an episode of Australian Broadcast Corporation’s podcast Conversations, hosted by Richard Fidler. This podcast episode is titled, “Love and family and Asperger’s: Tony Attwood” as it circles around the topic of marriages that involve one autistic partner and one neurotypical partner. Much of the examples given about these cases, in which Tony Attwood has professional experience with because he counsels such couples, typically speak about the autistic partner being the male in the couple (keeping in mind that all couples spoken about are heterosexual); this phenomenon, and other gender related issues, will be discussed thoroughly
This is a prime example of the ability to empathize on a deep and reflective level for others, and displays the notion of a different wiring of the brain than the neurotypical that allows for other modes of understanding the thoughts and feelings of human beings, animals, and the like. Attwood speaks about the lack of sexual/physical intimacy in the married couples he sees, and jokes that the autistic husband of the relationship does not see the need to have sex if the couple is not trying to have children. Although Grandin made the decision to be celibate, it is clear that physical touch has positive effects on autistic individuals, and Attwood’s dialogue proves to perpetuate the widespread misconception that disabled individuals, both mentally and physically, do not have sexual wants or needs. Grandin’s reflections on the love she feels for those around her debunks the assumption that autistic people prefer to be in solitude. Fidler asks the following question about this in the beginning the of the podcast: “Would many people with Asperger’s...just rather be left alone?” to which Attwood
[They] can cope with socializing for a certain period of time, but do so with intense intellectual energy and effort, and do it successfully...then the wheels fall off. [And they say,] ‘I just don’t want to talk to anyone,’”
While those with a general understanding of autism know Attwood’s description to be true, an important piece of perspective is missing in his answer to this question. Fidler asks if autistic people would rather be left alone, and while Attwood answered his question in a sense, he took it to the context of social gatherings. Naoki Higashida’s The Reason I Jump, a groundbreaking novel that goes through the many questions that non-autistic people have asked for decades, and provides comprehensive answers as provided by Naoki, a nonverbal autistic young adult (at the time) who communicated via a alphabet grid. Higashida answers the very question that Fidler poses, “Do you prefer to be on your own?,” to which he responds, “I can’t believe that anyone born as a human being really wants to be left all on their own,