Am I autistic? Are you oughtistic?
I have a son, now eight years old, who was diagnosed at the age of two and a half as Autistic Spectrum (Not Otherwise Specified). He is sitting in front of me as I write, watching a YouTube gameplay video (he is currently into Spore, but occasionally still backslides into Plants Versus Zombies and Cat Simulator). Needless to say, he is almost exactly like me. I have little doubt that if I were shrunk down to eight years old today I would be diagnosed as something . Disturbingly, schools today have psychologists-in-residence, so being diagnosed is an occupational hazard of being a kid, especially for boys . As already described, I escaped all this by growing up in the 60s, and being Catholic. The only diagnosis I recall clearly (apart from that of being made from puppy-dogs' tails, as already mentioned) was Original Sin: i.e., like all Catholic kids, I was routinely diagnosed as evil and thus deserving of eternal torture in a Lake of Fire. That was quite enough to b...